Plight of Six
by cgaussie01
Summary: Pt 16  A week has passed since Six found himself back in the labs fighting not only to keep his sanity, but to keep himself whole. Has he found an ally in Bernard, or has he helped write his own death certificate even faster?
1. Chapter 1

The rain was pouring down upon Metro City, as it had done for the past few weeks. First few weeks of winter were always tough on the city, the skies turning an unfriendly grey that reflected upon the streets below making it seem so dark and lifeless that not even the night lights of the beautiful city could break through the bleakness.

M stood upon the edge of a building, over looking the city. His city, at least that's the way he saw it. Months had passed since the collapse of the abandoned observatory, since the mysterious blue man known only as Megamind had entered his life guns blazing only to vanish just as quickly.

His mind often drifted to thoughts of the man, dressed in black, shrouded in darkness just how the city was now. How shattered and broken he was in his loneliness, and his insanity. Just where had he come from? Who was he really? And how did he come to be in this fair city in the first place? It was almost impossible to find any information on the man, since it had all simply vanished.

Vanished the day the building was destroyed. M had naturally gone to investigate, unknowingly to the rest of the people in the city. In the cover of darkness the man of strength and power used his stealth, and visited the crumbled tower. He lifted the rocks of earth as if they were made of nothing, and settled them asides. It only took him fifteen minutes but searching through the steel and concrete of the observatory he found them, robots. Giant heads with vacant, dead eyes, staring at the night sky that reflected in their lifeless orbs. And he continued to find more, and more.

Numerous robots, giants, smaller ones, and glass. When he found what was left of a burned mattress it became obvious, this was where Megamind had lived. Judging by just how much he uncovered, it must have been a long time. And the weapons he found, let's just say he was glad to see they had all been destroyed. A man bent on revenge and so full of anger had backed a wave of weaponry that was beyond the scope of human understanding.

"What were you?" he asked the city, wanting, needing an answer, but knew there were none to be found. They were gone, all of them.

~*~

Clear blue eyes stared at the documents that had been delivered by the mysterious man all those months ago. They hadn't been documents back then, however. They had been glowing blue cubes, small in size, and within a package. When she had finally gotten upstairs to her apartment to unwrap it she thought it to be some prank pulled by someone, but there had been a single piece of paper pinned between half of the blocks.

_Giver of life, giver of answers_

It made no sense to her at all. Giver of life? What was a giver of life? So the cubes were soon left and forgotten at the bottom of her cupboard, and she continued with her life, picking up the pieces after the rock known as Megamind had shattered her perception of things.

How was it, how could it be possible that a man, hidden from the world, had his fingers in absolutely everything? The Doom Syndicate, his, and he got more than half what they earned. Yet it seemed to be by his hand they had been taken down by the same hand that controlled them. Now they were all incarcerated, under lock and guard twenty four seven. They weren't a threat, and without the heads of the groups their little 'family' had broken at the seams.

Course, crimes still happened. There were still break in, robberies, thieves... what city was without them? But M was here, and he kept tabs on everyone in some way, shape or form.

But still. Even with her being televised onto people's homes and lives every day, Roxanne felt her mind returning to those striking green eyes that had stared into her soul that night. That he had been watching her, and she'd been so blind to it. It made her shiver in fear and disgust, yet intrigue at the same time.

It had been a Sunday and she was returning home, and Carlos her door man told her that the apartment above her had experienced some water problems and it was possible she had water damage. Swearing and cursing her luck, Roxanne had returned home and felt as though she had walked into the wrong bedroom. Her cupboard had burst open and boxes, and boxes of paperwork and hard drives had tumbled out of it onto her bedroom. So big the gathering was, it had 'leaked' out onto her bed and near the door.

"What..." she whispered as she walked forward and bent down the nearest box and opened it.

It was a medical record book, written by hand, with photographs printed and stuck in with glue. What it was shocked her. A blue child, wearing nothing, photographed from the front, back, and profile. He looked no older than four. Those eyes she recognized right away, though they were not tinted with anger or hatred. They were his. "Megamind." she whispered, before looking at the name that was emblazed upon the top of every single page. "Subject Six."

**Six.**

He was only a number to them, and nothing more.

Roxanne began to read everything as fast as she could. Once waking up she would pull a ledger into her lap. After her showers, during breakfast. During her lunch break. After work she would sit up and read until her eyes were sore from the strain of reading, and tears that tended to flow every now and then.

He'd been subjected to so much. Physical and psychological tests each and every day. Measurements taken, blood drawn... then she reached the ledger that detailed his older years. A teenager, fearing that he was beginning to become too stressed, and their attempt of putting him to sleep like they had Subject Five, a tiny fish. She read as there were recounts of his break out, his murder of at least ten people as he attempted to flee, and for a moment she was hoping he would get away... only to read on to see he had miscalculated, and had fallen down an elevator shaft.

She threw up once she read they had removed his legs, from the knee down, as not only a medical procedure due to extreme injuries, but as punishment.

Six, Megamind, had been so tortured. To know that the Government had funded all of this, they had allowed them to test on a child as much as they did... all because he was an alien. They felt his genes, strong with regrowth and strength against diseases, could benefit humanity. There were assumptions that had been supported through the research, and it seemed as though certain aspects of the alien DNA had caused rapid regeneration of cells. Even those belonging to cancer.

It was a medical breakthrough, but was it worth doing this? To him?

Roxanne rubbed her forehead, as she looked over the boxes stacked in her bedroom. Most of them contained medical journals, even some DVD's that were simply security footage.

How many nights had she, since discovering 'Giver of Life' meant water, sat up watching the footage? That white, blinding room, illuminated green when they were night time footage. She had watched the small blue boy curl up in his bed, the large sized cranium of his supported by a few white pillows. Another tape had him sitting at a desk with a man who seemed to be known exclusively as 'School'. He taught the boy, and it was obvious he was brilliant. Yet another tape, this one of him constructing something out of metals, a radio? It was something being watched and measured, of course, to see how long it would take for him to complete the task.

She dare not touch the medical DVD's. Roxanne didn't want nightmares, and she could envision that they were exceptionally awful if the medical journals were any indication.

Lifting her head she realized it was two in the morning. Feeling not nearly as sleepy as one would expect the woman got up and walked to her window and stared out at the city as the rain continued to fall, splattering the glass. "I don't think you're dead." she whispered to a man who wasn't there. "You've come too far to give in like that... you're looking for yourself." Roxanne continued, before pressing her hand to the glass. Her breathing was so close, so harsh, that the glass began to fog around her fingertips. Withdrawing her hand, she saw her imprint was left on the glass, and she left it as it was.

~*~

A man in a simple hoodie and jeans was walking down the street. His head was tucked, chin against his chest, yet his eyes bored upwards at the woman who was walking in front of him. She was wearing the type of clothes other women glared at, those short skirts and a low cutting top, bangles on her arms and heels that made a prostitute whistle. She was carrying a bag of groceries, having obviously just done her late night shopping.

He watched her walk down the street, humming to herself as her iPod was playing some song which was so loud even he could hear it. Jarring music, the type you'd expect to hear in a club where everyone grinded against one another whilst alcohol was consumed at a deadly rate.

She didn't seem to even notice he was there, one hand carrying her groceries, the other an umbrella, as she continued her way down the street. It wasn't far until she was home, and she could relax and do as she pleased. Another long day, meant another long night of resting.

But she never reached the corner. Hands suddenly grabbed her mouth and middle. She tried to scream but her cries were muffled. Down went her bag, and umbrella, as she was dragged into an ally way and thrown down against the ground hard. Trying to get up she found herself unable to, since a weight was pressing down on her as a knife was pulled and pointed right at her throat. A harsh whisper filled the air.

"Be quiet." was all he said, before his free hand forced itself under her skirt to grasp at her underwear.

Six stood in the shadows, watching the scene play out. It wasn't pretty, but then again nothing about this city was particularly pretty now, was it? He glowered as he heard the woman scream muffled, and he was well aware that there were people near by but nobody was doing anything to help her. Couldn't they feel her fear? Couldn't they hear her pleading for him to stop? No. It seemed humans were fairly deaf when it came to the suffering of others. How he hated them, yet loved them in the same breath.

Taking a long, slow breath he began to cross the street. The rain splattered against his head and his shadow stretched and distorted in the light of the street lights that flickered in the darkness. He had a disguise on, he always had to when he was out in the city. Six didn't have to guess how the populace would respond to seeing him walk the streets in his real skin, that striking, ugly blue that stood out like a sore thumb and his enormous head. What they saw was a regular every day man, black hair, a beard and mustache, average clothes of a shirt and jeans with a black leather jacket... and dull green eyes forever lidded by black eyelids from lack of sleep.

"Shut up shut up shut up," he could hear the man now as the blade pressed into her neck, "s'not gonna be pretty. Not at all." he said.

"You're right." Six said loudly, "It's not."

The man was to his feet quicker than Six would have anticipated, and he dragged the poor woman with him by the hair at first, before spinning and putting her in front of him, as if he was going to use her dishevelled form as a shield. Six saw the anger and hatred on the man's face, and the joy he had been experiencing from the woman's pain and for the briefest of seconds he was in that white room. The lights burned his eyes, and he could hear the screaming that sometimes never stopped.

"She's not your first." Six said, sounding shocked, his calm exterior beginning to flake. The rain seemed to be avoiding him entirely now, falling around him as if he held an invisible umbrella above his body. "My God." he said.

"None of your fuckin' business!" spat the man, "Get outta here ya, ya freak or I'll cut her!"

"You would have cut her anyway." replied Six, oddly calm, though you could see his demeanor beginning to break. "I've seen your face. I know it."

"Well I never seen you so back the FUCK off!" screamed the man before all the force of a car seemingly struck him in the chest. He went flying and slammed into the wall but instead of sliding to the floor he was pinned, as if someone was holding his throat and keeping him pinned against the wall. It was getting hard to breathe, and if he could he would have grabbed at his throat, trying to remove the force he felt but was unable to do even that. He couldn't even kick his legs.

Six turned his gaze to the woman who was shaken, terrified, but still alive. "You should go." he said, and she didn't seem to have to be told twice. He heard her shakily whisper a thank you before grabbing at her shredded belongings and ran, heels clicking across the wet surface of the road as she did. Six watched her go, until he turned his attention back to the man, and bowed his head forward as he walked towards him.

His windpipe was being crushed. He could feel it, and in an attempt to scream all what came out was a weak splutter as the life left him.

"No... no, no... No... not again, No... NO." Six, suddenly stopped in his tracks and shaking hands lifted, and pressed themselves against his temples. He could feel the pressure, the madness, the anger he had worked so hard at channelling. It was like trying to hold back the tide, this man, this horrible, horrible man who had made a sport of ruining the women he found.

"_Just like the doctors._" whispered Megamind from the back of his head. "_Just like them._"

Six screamed, and as his eyes shut he felt blood suddenly splatter against his face and his chest. Hearing the splatter of blood and remains of the man hit the wall and floor made his stomach lurch, yet not enough for him to bring up what food he'd consumed that day. Six didn't need to open his eyes to know what he'd done, that he'd blown the man's head up from the inside. He'd done the wrong thing, the _worst_ thing. That wasn't what he was trying to do, that wasn't what he had been trying to achieve at all. Why was this happening? Why was the voice of his other half speaking to him again, after all these months of silence? He had done good, he had blown up his base, he had destroyed everything that ever meant anything to him so he could save these people and yet they just kept hurting, just kept killing.

How did M stand it? How did he do this?

Slumping to his knees in the rain with the dead man's body half collapsed in front of him Six shut his eyes and started to cry.

~*~

Meanwhile, across the city, at the docks, the remains of the building that had caved in on Megamind was still cordoned off. There just weren't any funds to clear it all away, and it was simply surrounded by a tall fence which some people had already ripped holes in just for the sake of it. Beneath the rubble, which had survived the water from the destruction of the observatory, there was a half shattered dome. The glass had been made of strong stuff, since it was to protect something most valuable.

A rock happened to fall, and landed on another couple of rocks. This one insignificant moment caused a few more rocks to fall by the way side, and a small, round ball fell out from the dome of glass. It began to bounce down the concrete and steel, through the debris, to fall through the fence that had been ripped in just the right place, and rolled straight into the water.

Bobbing to the surface the round glass ball, with a small green fish inside, began to gently drift with the current, which began to carry it in towards the port.

And yet the rain still poured.


	2. Chapter 2

"...this is Roxanne Ritchi reporting from the City Docks, back to you Trent." Roxanne smiled pleasantly at the screen before gesturing with her hand to cut the feed. Sighing, the woman set her hand on her hip as she glanced around her surroundings. There had been reports of 'strange fish' being seen on sonar devices. It appeared to be a school of fish moving as one, but whenever anybody got too close they swam off in formation, and soon vanished from sight.

Some specialists were speculating that it was the return of an endangered species, or maybe a long dormant breed of fish waking from the depths of the ocean and was attracted by their warm waters of the bay. Roxanne knew little about fish so she had feigned understanding when talking to a man in a blue overcoat, and a grey bristly beard.

"This place reeks of fish." Hal muttered as he began putting the camera into the van.

"Docks and fish markets tend to do that, Hal." Roxanne replied with a small, bemused smirk.

"Oh. Right. Yeah well. It still stinks." he replied as he closed the case on the camera and slid it into place in the back of the van.

Roxanne walked along the pier, one hand clutching her microphone still whilst the other lifted to brush through her short brown hair. Another day, another story to report. Not the story she wanted to, though. All that information she had in her apartment, all the records and even financial records. To reveal to the world that the Government had been experimenting on alien life forms for decades would blow the socks off anyone who still believed aliens didn't exist. But she could all but imagine the men in black coming down on her, guns blasting or memory erasing tactics like MiB.

She snorted, remembering that silly movie, before something caught her eye. "Huh?" Roxanne looked down at the water, murky and littered with leaves and bits of rubbish. Something was floating by which by all means shouldn't be floating. It looked like a bowling ball, it was round, smooth, but it seemed to appear to have something inside of it.

"What is..." then she knew where she had seen it before. In one of the more painful video security tapes she watched from that box of information was one of a man handing the young Six, Megamind, a ball just like that. The boy had screamed and bitten him when trying to retrieve it, and according to the records the ball had been number Five. An alien fish that had arrived with Six, and had been killed and dissected but preserved. "Five!" she called out, as if he was a person in need of help. She threw her microphone to the floor and before she really knew what she was doing she was leaping into the water after the ball. "Five, Five!"

"Roxy!" Hal, having watched her suddenly leap in the water came rushing up. He stopped at the edge of the dock, looking down at the woman who was grasping at a ball. "Roxy what... get out of there, it's totally gross! Oh man you're gonna stink of fish!" he said.

Roxanne knew this, but her main concern was wrapping her fingers around the ball. For a moment it felt as though the little orb was going to just slip out of her reach but finally her hand grabbed it, and she pulled it to her chest and kicked her feet to stay suspended in the water. "Hal! I got him!" she called out proudly, as if she'd just saved a drowning man.

"Yay, great, you saved some trash?" Hal asked as he stepped back as the woman approached him to climb out of the water. He would attempt to offer her his hand but he didn't want murky ocean water to get on him so he watched as she pulled herself out and stared at the small ball she set on the floor. "So... what is it?"

She realized suddenly that he had no idea what it was, or what it meant. How would he know the tiny fish suspended in murky fluid was an alien fish? Roxanne got to her feet and picked it up, shrugging off her wet jacket to wrap it up tightly in it. "Oh, oh it's just. Um. Look Hal can we forget this happened? I'd appreciate it."

"Forget about- you just jumped in the water after a bowling ball?" Hal asked, astonished she'd ask such a thing of him.

"Please Hal?" she asked, giving him her best doe eyed expression that men could very rarely deny. Roxanne could practically hear his resolve buckle and smiled brightly when he gave her a tired, but accepting, look. "Great, thanks Hal." Roxanne smiled, before looking down at herself finally. She was soaking wet, and she really smelled of fish and filthy water.

"Okay you're not coming into the van like that." he said pointedly, "So best get out of those wet clothes huh?" Hal added, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ha ha, yeah. Right." Roxanne scoffed. "I need a bit of a walk anyway. I'll get back, oh wait lemme get my bag..."

After retrieving her dry bag she waved Hal off, who she was sure was worrying for her sanity, before she began to walk. She could walk to her apartment from here, sure it would take an hour, but she'd rather go straight home and shower then bother anyone else with her presence. But most importantly, she'd get to have a real good look at the little fish that now floated in her arms, held in a ball and hidden from the world.

~*~

"You're owing on back rent, John." the man said while standing in the door frame of the apartment, reeking of alcohol and sweat. He had thinning hair, a beard that was unshaven and scraggly, and his skin was tanned from years of working out in the sun as a construction worker.

John, Six, stood in front of him in the apartment. It was the size of a shoe box, small, cramped, barely enough room for a bed and a desk while he had to use a community bathroom downstairs. He sighed, and rubbed at his forehead, fighting back the headache he was feeling coming on. "Yes... yes... of course..." he mumbled before turning away and went to his bed and lifted the mattress.

"Ya continue on like this John 'n I'll see your ass out on the pavement." Mr. Russo said as he folded his arms, watching the stick-thin man bend by his bed and search for money kept in his mattress.

"Sorry." 'John' said in a tone which gave no emotion at all. "How much do I owe?"

"Two fifty." Mr. Russo said.

"Last time it was only two." green eyes narrowed, 'John' looked at his land lord.

"Revenue's gone up. Things're more expensive. Don't like it, go elsewhere." shrugged Mr. Russo.

Six hated this man. He pulled out an envelope and thumbed out two hundred and fifty, and handed it over to the man who greedily took it and counted it in front of him, as if he was trying to go short on payment. "Great thanks. Oh 'n sorry 'bout the power still bein' out. Electricians charge an arm 'n a leg!"

"Yeah. Arm and leg." John replied before, rudely, shutting the door in the mans face and turned and observed his surroundings. Is this what he had become? Living in a shoe box on a thin, soiled mattress he found on the side of the road? Paying that much for this little room seemed ridiculous. But this was the only place who didn't ask for 'references', wanting to know where else you had stayed in the city. Sure, he'd love to explain living in an underground lair built up over years by rage and anger only to be torn down. Or better yet, an underground government facility where he was experimented on every day of his life!

They'd love that, and then they'd throw him into a mental institution.

Six walked over to his dresser, which had a small fish bowl on top. One lone, white gold fish lazily swam around, before dipping down to pick at the pebbles at the bottom of the bowl looking for something to eat. He watched its unblinking eyes as it swam, fins lifting as it breathed, and finned tail swishing as it moved. It was no replacement for Minion, however, even if it had been revealed to him that his existence had been one of desperation so he wouldn't be completely alone... like now.

Knowing your best friend, your only friend, had been a voice in your head all your life had been more striking for the alien to accept then the fact that he had destroyed everything he'd ever made. His robots, his Brain Bots, his machines of death... all of it gone because one woman had gotten through to him.

Remembering, suddenly, he spun and picked up the tiny television he had bought from a cheap store. Adjusting the tuning device he sat on his bed, and smiled as the soft glow of the television illuminated his face. Lifting a hand, he touched his watch, and his projected image vanished and was replaced with blue skin, and the large head. His beard was unkempt now, and Michael Moore would probably be proud of just how messy it was. Scratching at it he watched as the news reader talked at length about things that didn't matter to him, though there was a mention of a dead body found abandoned in front of the local police station and M was being sought in regards to it. Had the hero killed a man? Or was it somebody else?

Six gave a small smile though, when it was reported the dead man's DNA had been linked to over fifteen rape cases in the city, as well as in other states.

"And now we cross to Roxanne Ritchi with reports of strange fish life being identified off our bay area." said the cheery blonde, which both excited, and shocked, Six. Was his Minion-fish being seen by people? What if one of them was caught? Or if they attacked somebody for food? His hand went to his mouth and he watched as Roxanne's face took up the screen, and the horror, and fear, he had been feeling melted away. How was it that her face alone, the sound of her voice coming out of a small, tiny screen brought such comfort?

He leaned back on his bed and stared at the image as she talked, mostly with other men in coats, about the strange fish. There were blurry photographs, and video footage but they were always out of focus and too far away to be really spotted. But they still glowed, gently, in the dark water. As he expected, whenever the boat approached too closely they took off, surprisingly quick despite their un-aerodynamic design and shape.

"...maybe I could... get a bigger place... a fish tank... keep you all safe...?" he asked quietly before the image went back to Roxanne who was signing off. Six sighed and pressed his finger to the screen, as if touching her cheek. "...I'm going to get a tank." Six announced to nobody as he set the television down on his bed and turned it off, before grabbing some money from beneath his mattress. Naturally when he had blown up everything he owned he had kept some money since nobody went into the world penniless. That would just be stupid, and he was NOT stupid.

Though, lately he had been feeling like he was. He had no plans to stick to now; he had no plans of revenge, no nothing. Without that goal on the distance, the alien had well and truly become lost. Having no identity out in the real world he couldn't apply for jobs, could not get a bank account, or anything. He considered robbing a few places, maybe, to get by but no. That wasn't who he was anymore, no more of that. No illegal documents claiming him to be a U.S citizen, no fake I.D, social security number, nothing. That was why he had to live in such a back water part of the city. No questions. No answers. People came and went in the night and nobody cared.

Six hadn't even noticed he had left his apartment behind by now, so intent on buying a new fish tank. He'd fill it with water then go 'fishing' for his fish that night. They would recognize him, they would come to him, and he'd gather them up and keep them close like he should have. Those fish were his only true connection to Minion, why had he been so quick to set them loose? What would Minion think, what would he say?

"Minion is dead." he said aloud as he hurried out to cross the street, eyes focused ahead of him. "Minion isn't here. He's dead, they killed-"

A force suddenly slammed into him with all the subtlety of a pillow case with a brick. He heard tires screech, and felt the ground beneath him as he bounced. His skin burned on his thighs and forearm of his left arm, and he could already smell the burning of material and some gravel from his blood coming in contact. His large head struck the road and he saw stars, and he lay there, vision blurred as the world began to slowly return to focus.

"Oh my God!" he heard a voice cry out, and a car door slamming. "Oh my God oh my God, I didn't, I didn't see! Y-you came out of nowhere...!" the woman's voice was shaking, full of fear at the prospect of killing somebody with her car and getting in trouble with the police.

Six could tell his left arm was popped out of its socket, and he could still smell the burning. The woman was getting closer. If she touched him... no, no. He forced himself to sit up and the woman jumped back, giving a cry of alarm.

"A-are you- oh my God your arm!"

"My arm..." Six echoed as he grabbed his left arm's bicep and with a sickening crack and pop, he put it back in its socket. He moved his arm slowly, checking to see if there was any damage but if there were any muscle damage it was already healing. As was the skid marks to his arm and thighs. Lifting his hand he touched his bruised head when he suddenly realized who it was that was crouching besides him, reaching out to him. "Roxanne." he blurted, before moving away from her, pushing at the ground. Oh God. It was Roxanne. _Roxanne._

"I'm so sorry," Roxanne was trying to keep it together but her heart was racing so fast she could hear the blood pumping in her ears, and she felt like she was going to throw up. The skinny man had all but jumped out from behind a parked car and she barely had time to put her foot on the breaks. She had seen him go flying and for a horrifying second believed she'd killed him. But he was sitting up; he looked fine, didn't he? "I'm so, so sorry are you all right what is your name?" she asked, "It's okay, it's okay...?" he statement became a question when she finally saw his eyes.

They were a bright, acidic green. Those eyes... she knew those eyes. She had seen them all those months ago, full of anger, pain, regret... and in those medical journals. Those photos of the young alien growing in the snapshots, his expressions were sometimes blank and emotionless.

"Megamind?" she asked.

"No!" Six cried out as he got to his feet quickly and backed up, "No no, no. No. Not Megamind, no. Never again, no...!"

She was to her feet quickly, hands up, showing him she meant no harm. But really, what could she do to him in the first place? He was gifted, so very gifted, and could probably kill her without even meaning to. That scared her, and thrilled her, at the same time. "It's okay, really. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... Please don't leave, please don't. I thought you were dead, we all thought..."

"You were meant to." Six replied quickly, bumping up against a parked van and felt it, as if seeing if he could push through it and vanish. "Everyone was meant to. I did horrible things. I planned horrible things. This, this whole city I was... I was going to burn it and destroy it and..." he shut his eyes tightly and swallowed. Even though he wore that human disguise, despite his head appearing normal and his clothes every day, Roxanne could still the vulnerability she had witnessed all those months ago. He was like a little boy, trapped in a place he couldn't understand, a place that didn't want him. Or deserve him.

"But you didn't." Roxanne said gently, taking a step closer towards him. "You... you destroyed everything. You didn't set out to destroy us all, or kill people. And I am so, so proud of you for doing that."

Those eyes opened again, quickly, and he was staring at her. By the look he was giving her she wondered if anyone, outside those horrific doctors, had ever told him such a thing. He hadn't completed a task, home work, or a study course in a matter of hours. He hadn't shown how smart or talented he was. It's what he hadn't done that had made her proud of him.

"...proud of... me..." Six stammered quietly.

"What can I call you?" Roxanne asked gently, taking another few steps towards him, wanting to reach out and touch him but knew better. Touch brought pain to him, it had done little to nothing else while growing up and she didn't want to trigger anything.

"...Six..." he replied after a quiet moment of contemplation. "Call me Six."

She felt like a dagger had been plunged into her heart and twisted in deeply. That loveless, horrible number which only served to categorize what number alien he was in that underground facility, was the only name he knew. It's what he was comfortable with, despite all the trauma that was attached to it. Roxanne couldn't show her pain at hearing his name, she had to accept it. This was who he was. "Six." she replied gently before forcing a small smile onto her face. "It's... it's good to see you again, Six."

He eased, gently, no longer pressing into the van trying to meld with it, and just leaned against it. Six gave a shaky, hopeful kind of smile.

"And it's... wonderful to see you, Rox... Mis... w-what do I call you?" he asked, since he really had no idea. Was it right for him to call his previous kidnap victim by her first name? Or was it too formal to call her by her surname?

"Roxanne." she replied with an easier smile. "You can call me Roxanne."

_To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

The woman and the disguised alien walked along the street, and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. So this is how he got around the city in board daylight without drawing any attention to himself? A disguise generator. She wondered how he really looked, under the disguise of a plain looking man with pale skin. Would it reflect how he felt? This diguise was so much more than just one to fit in, but it was also hiding what was going on with him. A genius, that's what he was. No wonder the military had been logging interests with the government for him to design new weaponry for their troops.

"What... what have you been doing all this time?" she finally asked the question that been on her mind ever since she'd discovered who he was.

Six looked at her briefly, before looking ahead of him as they continued their slow walk through the streets. "Um. Well. Nothing."

"Nothing?" Roxanne asked, "I find that hard to believe..."

"I know, sad huh?" Six asked shakily, giving a faint smile. "No, nothing. I'm. I'm afraid if I start making something it will blow up and hurt people and I'll be the way I was before. I don't want to be that person anymore." he continued, explaining quietly and quickly.

"No, no it isn't sad..." Roxanne replied quietly, wanting to reach out and touch his shoulder but she wasn't sure if he would appreciate the gesture. This was like handling a highly explosive material, one wrong move or accidentally touching something against it could cause mayhem! She didn't want to be responsible for anything happening out here, or to Six. Not anymore. Not now that she knew everything about him. "...uh, are you hungry?" she asked. Food was always a safe topic.

Six was about to answer her when his stomach did it for him, suddenly growling with all the savagery of a caved tiger. He paled and coughed into a fist, looking away. "I guess I am..."

Roxanne gave a nervous little laugh before pointing across the street. "Well there's a place there. How about it?"

He paused as he observed the fast food chain, before looking back at the woman. Even if his face was a disguise, she saw the alien in those bright green eyes of his. The alien, the man, looked confused. "Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked, breaking the ice and voicing the question he'd had since she had hurried to his side after knocking him over with her car. "I mean. I. I terrorized the city. I was in control of the Doom Syndicate. I used to watchyou. I kidnapped you an I injured so many people... w-why aren't you trying to get in contact with M, or the military? Even more so after I gave you my records..."

She gave him a contemplative look, before gently reaching out and finally placing her hand to his arm. Judging by how he didn't jump back, swat her away, or use his powers to blast her away was a good first sign. "Because you deserve it. Nobody deserves what you went through, nobody. It's horrible and. And I couldn't live with myself if I just abandoned you the minute I found you again." Roxanne smiled softly, encouragingly. "Come on. You need to eat." she said with firm resolve, which was true. One of the many, many tests on Six had been just how long he could manage on a small diet of only water and nothing else. He had been ten at the time, and unlike a person who could last a few days without food in their system Six had barely lasted longer than a day. He had been practically starved only to prove how strong his metabolism was. The fact he had been just a child at the time had boiled her blood and ignited her rage. It was no wonder everyone involved in the whole operation was now dead, dead and gone by Six's hand.

Roxanne never viewed herself as an bad person, but she found herself glad in the knowledge they were all dead.

Six stared her, and she wondered if he was reading her mind or something like it since he suddenly chuckled softly, nervously, but then stopped as if feeling that laughing wasn't the right thing to do. He scratched at his nose. "O-okay. I could eat..."

So here she sat in a fast food chain sitting across from a man, an alien, who had terrorized the city. He could have been a great threat to her, and even M, the man everyone believed to be indestructible. Yet she had seen him, all those months ago, having the very oxygen to his lungs being cut off by the blue alien. He had even threatened disconnecting special optical nerves, blinding the hero. Luckily he hadn't done such a thing, which was somewhat of a saving grace. Roxanne watched as the ex super villain Megamind, now Six, ravaged the cheeseburger he had ordered. In front of him was another cheese burger, three large fries, chicken nuggets, and small round potatoes to dip into mashed potato and gravy. The burgers weren't small either, he had to really open his mouth wide to eat it.

"Wow." she said as she watched him stuff some chips into his mouth. "You're like a machine."

"I haven't eaten since yesterday." Six said once swallowing, and grabbing the large drink he had bought and took a big gulp of it. "Hm. You'd know..."

"Yes." Roxanne nodded. "I read it. I read them all."

He flinched as if suddenly struck by someone, and looked down at his meal while he picked up a small potato ball. "Sorry."

"What for?" she asked, surprised.

"For inflicting all that on you." Six explained, "I just. I didn't know who else to give it to. And you being a reporter I thought you'd... I don't know. Not like I thought you'd reveal it all, it'd be impossible to do without being seen as a crazy woman or getting the attention of the government. I should have just buried it all."

"What? No, no." Roxanne insisted, "You did the right thing. But you are right, it is hard to put this information out and have it accepted and not tossed aside by some publicity stunt for a new movie or TV shows coming out. I've even written a few articles, and tried to submit them. Naturally they were rejected..." she sighed, and picked up the drink she had gotten herself and took a slow sip. "I guess you have to find the right publishers..."

Six merely nodded before glancing at his reflection that was to his left, since this store had a large mirror running along the top length of one of the walls. His pale face stared back at him but for a split second he swore his eyes had suddenly narrowed at him. Blinking rapidly Six looked back down at his food, and continued eating slowly, speaking only once his mouth was free. "The only places that would print those would be those ten cent newspapers nobody takes seriously... you know the ones? That say Michael Jackson is an alien and his parents have come back to take him home to his home planet or something like that." he said, dipping a few chips into his potatoes and gravy.

Roxanne couldn't help but giggle. Those newspapers were a riot, she remembered reading those things since her cousin believed in all that kind of stuff so she always had something interesting to read when her parents would visit his. Then she remembered at least some 'photos' taken years back of an alien roaming Metro City. Of course the photos had been blurry as Hell, but now sitting across from Six she had to wonder if somebody had actually snapped photos of him.

She was surprised to discover when she looked back at him that all of his food was gone. Megamind wiped at his mouth with a napkin before putting his hands to the table and suddenly standing. "I need to go."

"What?" Roxanne asked, what had she done wrong? Why was he leaving? "Why?"

"I have... s-something I need to do." Six said as he walked out of his chair but she was after him, following.

"What is it?" she asked.

He turned to look at her and she stopped walking, realizing she was being incredibly nosy. That wasn't good. "S-sorry." Roxanne stammered, "I just. Sorry."

Six frowned slightly before sighing. "I have some fish out in the dock that I need to rescue. They're mine. I need to get them out of there before any scientists find them. So I need to buy a large tank of water, fill it, and go down to the docks and find them. I won't let them kill them and cut them open like they did to Minion. It was a mistake to let them go and I have to fix it. I need to save them."

"And you worry if you're a bad guy." Roxanne said softly with an odd little smile.

"Huh?" Six blinked.

"If you were the bad guy you would be caring less about them." she pointed out. "The fact you care about their safety is proof you're not as evil as you think you are. Or thought you were."

Six gave her a sad kind of expression before shrugging. "It's... it's only right. I need to save them because of my stupid choices."

"I can help." Roxanne said, "We can get a tank and put it in the back seat of my car. Then we can take them back to your place and then they'll be safe and you won't have to carry a fish tank all through town."

"...you'd... do that?" Six asked quietly after a pause to consider her offer. It sounded very nice, to actually have help but this was Roxanne. Why should she lower herself to a lowly assistant to him? She was too high on the ladder to do such a thing, he should tell her no. He must tell her no. Yet he just looks at her before vaguely nodding. "...sure, thanks." he hears his voice say, despite his mind ranting on about how no, no no no this was a single job! She had no right to put her fingers into their pie, nosy woman! But then she smiled at him and that angry little voice was lulled to silence like a fussing baby being given a bottle. He had seen her smile millions of time son the television but never in real life, never at him. His hearts sped up their pace and he was glad that the disguise generator didn't translate blushes or else he'd be in big trouble.

~*~

Finding yourself standing on a dock after dark with a large fish tank full of water sitting in the back of a news van and a disguised alien sitting besides you in the passenger seat isn't something normal people normally find themselves doing. Yet Roxanne had hardly ever called herself normal, seeing how what she was involved in with aliens and what not. Normal people were so... boring.

"So you... flushed them?" Roxanne asked, hands in her lap.

"Not the word I would use but... well. Yes." Six admitted with a small shrug as he watched the skies darken with the fading sun.

"That's kind of sweet." she admitted, smiling faintly. "So you think they're the ones the scientists are watching out for?" Roxanne asked, turning to look at him. Even though he looked like a regular human, she found herself wishing he would drop the disguise. That blue skin had drifted through her dreams for months now, and she wanted to seeit.

"I know they are." Six replied quietly, acidic green eyes watching the waters now. "The descriptions are them. I can't let them catch them and have them do to them what was done to me."

Roxanne hoped she didn't flinch at his words, or give away any of what she was feeling as he spoke. To hear him comment on his upbringing so... casually made her worry. She had seen the extent of what they'd done. Pain factors, starving him, seeing what chemicals would react to his skin, injections, tests, everything was horrible and read like a horror story someone would make into a movie. Her eyes suddenly trailed to his legs, remembering the moment when he had begun removing his boots in front of her. The fear she had felt that he was about to do something to her, instead he revealed both of his legs, from the knees down, were made of metal.

It seemed he picked up on her anxiety since he turned his head to look at her, and then down at his legs. "...I'm making you uncomfortable. I'm sorry." he mumbled.

"What? No, no you're not." Roxanne replied quickly.

"I am. I can feel it." Six replied with a small, sad smile. He reached up and tapped his head. "Mind reading."

"So you can..." Roxanne started, then paled.

"Don't worry. I don't go prying on purpose. At least anymore." Six replied quickly. "Now and then it happens. I don't mean it to. It gives me headaches."

"Wow. Those must be pretty... well. Bad." she smiled faintly.

"You have no idea." he smiled back at her before looking back out over the water. "I've got to go find them now."

"How?"

He did not answer her. Instead he opened the van door and climbed out. Roxanne hurried, unclasping her seat belt and hurried out after him. By the time she got around to the front of the van Six was standing on the edge of the wooden planks on which the dock was secured, and staring out at the water. He glanced around and Roxanne swore she felt something suddenly pass through her entire being; and she realized he had just checked to see if anyone was about by feeling with his mind. Roxanne shuddered and pressed her hands to her chest, her heart racing. She could smell him, still feel him, and it both scared and intrigued her.

"Sorry." Six mumbled as he remained staring out at the water. "It's easier to do that when checking for people."

She was about to ask why but then was answered when his left hand grasped at his right wrist and the disguise he was wearing flicked off as if he had flipped a night switch. Despite how well presented his human disguise looked, what he really wore, and what he really looked like, was much different. His jeans were tattered and torn in some places, any large enough holes under the knees she could see glints of metal coming from under the clothing. A tartan red shirt two sizes too big hung off of his slim fame, and she was certain he was wearing something pink underneath that.

He had no shoes on either.

Roxanne walked up so she was standing besides him, and now saw his face. His skin was still blue but... it wasn't as blue as she could remember it. Had it faded? Yet the darkness around his eyes had tripled, and his face was gaunt, thin as if he was half starved. Was he? That stab of pity pierced her heart and she wanted to say something, to reach out to touch him but she lost her chance as he suddenly stepped forwards off the dock.

She had expected him to hover across the water, or maybe even walk. Instead he fell into the freezing water and she yelled in surprise, he was already so skinny wouldn't the hyperthermia kill him? Roxanne rushed forward to the edge of the dock and watched as bubbles began to lift up through the murky water. Instead of sticking in one spot they suddenly shot forward, and it wasn't long until she had no idea where he was.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked herself aloud as she stood there, nervously fidgeting her hands. "I should be calling the police, shouldn't I? What he was doing, what he is... but they'd take him back underground, they'd probably even try to kill him and he'd defend himself and more people... I couldn't..." Roxanne trailed off and wished M was here. He would have a better idea as to what to do with the blue ex-villain who now seemed a shadow of his former self. No, not that... a shadow of a shadow.

He wouldn't hurt anyone now, would he?

Would he hurt her?

She gasped suddenly as something came flying out of the water. It was the size of a half inflated balloon and it was glowing a little. The fish was instantly familiar as the small creature that had lived in the robot, and what she had found. Only this one was alive. It suddenly dropped and Roxanne reached out and caught it, and the fish began to struggle and flap its fins. "Oh, ugh...!" it was slimy and cold but she hurried to the van and placed it in the water before hurrying back to the doc since it seemed this is what Six wanted her to do.

What followed was a very strange hour for Roxanne. Her arms and chest ended up soaked, as much as her skirt, from the wet fish that would end up all but flying into her arms. They were of various sizes and shapes too, but all of them shared similar traits. The sharp teeth, human-like eyes and the glowing skin... Is this what the dead one, Number Five/Minion, was supposed to look like? But he was dead, and still a baby; and she suddenly remembered that she actually had him in her apartment.

Oh God. How was she going to tell Six this? Should she? He just spent all this time finding his other living fish, what good was it to introduce him back to his dead one? The one that he had believed to be alive all this time, only to have it revealed to him that he had been a figment of his imagination all this time...? Roxanne's heart raced and she suddenly realized Six was coming out of the water finally. Grabbing a towel from the van she hurried to him and threw it around him but didn't stay too close for too long since she still didn't know how he'd react to touch.

"Thank you." he mumbled as he used it to dry himself, but also possibly warm himself up.

"Did you get them all?" Roxanne asked, glancing at the tank that now had around nine fish fighting for space.

"Yes... the rest are dead..." Six whispered shakily. "I should... should never have thrown them out here..."

"Come on. You're cold. You're coming with me." Roxanne said sternly as she now reached out and grabbed his arm, hauled him to his feet and walked him to the van. Before he could utter any form of complaint she pushed him into the passenger seat, walked around, closed the back of the van and climbed into her own seat. "I can't leave you to go wherever you're staying and be in wet clothes. So don't bother complaining and don't dare use any of that brain alien thing on me either or I'll never talk to you again." she said sternly as she started the van, and drove away from the docks.

He was stunned to silence, before he gave her a small, awkward smile. "I couldn't control you even if I wanted to." Six was then quiet for a beat before laughing. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Roxanne replied quietly as she drove back home, wondering on just what had taken control of her if not him. After reading about this broken creature for months, wondering where he was, having now finally found him it felt as though she had a duty to care for him in a way nobody had done before. To show him that humanity as a whole weren't as horrible as those people were, but why would it matter? He wasn't a bad guy anymore, he wasn't planning on destroying the city or the planet... unless this was part of his plan. To appear a changed individual? Roxanne glanced at him nervously and blinked in surprise since he had turned his disguise back on.

The black haired man stared out of the car window, watching the world whiz by.

Six watched as cars over took them, and he caught sight of his own reflection staring back at him in the glass. Of course it wasn't his true self, it was that pasty white disguise he wore. Yet his eyes remained the same, hollow, green and tired. He hated them. He hated how he had fallen to being this creature, sitting in a woman's van who felt nothing but pity for him, and the remains of his mighty empire reduced to nine fish in a fish tank. His reflections eyes suddenly narrowed, before turning its gaze away to glare at Roxanne's reflection that was just visible to the left of him.

Six stared, wide eyed, before turning away suddenly so he was looking forward.

He had seen that, hadn't he? It had happened before, too. Just not so... much? Hearts racing, Six hoped Roxanne hadn't noticed anything, or ask him what was wrong. How to answer such a question? Oh I just saw my reflection move without me doing the same? Was he unravelling? No, no... things were looking up, weren't they? He had his fish back. Roxanne was talking to him. He had food in his stomach. Those were three things he didn't have yesterday.

Turning his head, Six looked back into the van to see the tank of fish. The aquatic creatures were jostling because of the movement of the van but with the lid of the tank in place no water was being lost. They seemed to pick up on the feeling of being watched and looked at him, and they watched him carefully, eyes voicing their concern.

He smiled for them, before turning back so he was facing the front.

He was all right, wasn't he?

He **had** to be.

_To be continued_


	4. Chapter 4

"Are they going to be all right?" Roxanne asked as she stared at the fish that were now taking up the room in the back of the news van. They drifted in the water like any normal fish, blinking now and then and casting her a few warning looks. Did they trust her? Were they bred to trust anyone other than their master, and creator? She doubted it.

"They should be." Six said as he pressed a hand against the glass, green eyes wide as he took in the sight of them again. He still felt horrible that a handful of them had passed away out in the ocean, beyond his reach, but there was nothing he could do about that now. That was all in the past, and this was the present and he had to focus on it. "I'll be back." he said to them, withdrew, and shut the van door on them.

Now Roxanne was worried, more so than before. She had almost forgotten about the library of books and notes that took up the majority of her apartment. Then the second realization that struck her almost had enough strength to knock her off of her feet. The fish in the ball, Minion, was in her apartment. What would Six think of this? How would he react to this realization that she had his dead, somewhat best and only, friend in her possession? This had suddenly become far more dangerous than she had thought before. She chewed at her bottom lip for a moment as Six walked around her, gazing up at the tall apartment block that she called home.

"You live here?" he asked.

"Yes. Yes." Roxanne said as she fumbled for her keys, tugging them out of the back of her jeans pocket. "Have for a long time."

Six just nodded, and she walked him through past the security guard who eyed the skinny pale black clad man who was walking in with her. It was obvious that Carlos wanted to ask questions, who this man was, but one sharp edged look from Roxanne froze any questions on his tongue.

"This way." she guided him to the elevator and pressed the button and waited for it to arrive. The doors made a pleasant little ping noise as they opened and she walked into the elevator, but stopped when she saw Six had remained standing out in the foyer. "Uh... Six?" Roxanne asked.

The alien, man, took a step away from the elevator. "No, no. That won't do." he said quietly.

"What won't do?" she asked.

"I. What floor are you on?" asked Six, lifting his gaze as if he could see just how many floors the apartment complex had from his vantage point in the foyer.

"Eighteen... what is it, what's wrong?" Roxanne asked, stepping out from the doors before they could close. They made an unhappy 'bzzt' noise at her, and remained open.

Six looked at her. "It's not like I'm afraid, because I'm not. I want to make that perfectly clear." he said, opening his hands widely. "I'm not afraid. But I. I can't go in there."

Roxanne looked over her shoulder at the elevator, and felt like she could smack her forehead with the palm of her hand. Of course he wouldn't like elevators. He fell down one, once, and what had happened to him afterwords was well documented. Naturally he would have an adverse reaction to an elevator from then on. "I understand." she said. "Do you want me to... go up the stairs with you?"

"Oh no. No." Six shook his head. "I'll be fine. Eighteen? Eighteen. You, door slave, which way to the stairs?" he asked Carlos, who had been doing his best to not appear to be eavesdropping on the conversation.

"That way." Carlos pointed and Six gave Roxanne a small wave before hurrying off to the stairs and vanished through the door. "Strange boy, Miss. Ritchi." Carlos commented once he was gone.

"I know." Roxanne said as the elevator began to complain again. "All right, all right... I'm coming..." she muttered angrily at the complaining elevator, and the doors finally shut. At least this moment alone gave her a moment to think. Taking in a deep breath she pressed her hands to her forehead, and shut her eyes. "Okay. Okay. You can run ahead, put Minion somewhere... just make sure nothing too obvious... oh god if he reads my mind and finds out he's there what would that do... I can't have him blow up the apartment... can he do that? I don't even know. How'd he keep these abilities hidden all those years in the facility anyway?"

The elevator suddenly opened on the right floor and Roxanne jumped, despite herself. Grasping at her chest she heaved a breath and hurried out into the red carpeted hallway and to her door. She unlocked it and hurried in and saw the small ball with the fish sitting on her coffee table amongst some books. Grabbing the fish she looked around her apartment loft, trying to find a place to put him. She decided on the bathroom, hurried in, opened the pantry that had towels inside and shoved him inside and slammed the doors after.

She'll try to ease Six into the fact that Minion was in her apartment. Coming at him straight off the bat... she suddenly opened the pantry again to pull out some towels since Six was still very much wet, and shut it again. Just as she was walking into the lounge she jumped, since Six was standing in the doorway. "Wow you... you're fast." she said.

"Works when you're as skinny as me. Plus I might have flown most of the way." Six said as he walked in, closing the door behind him and fiddled with the watch. Pale skin gave way to blue, and that huge cranium appeared once more along with that shaggy beard, all of which was still wet. "So..."

"Here, here." Roxanne opened up one towel and placed it over his still soaking wet clothes. "You're no good if you stay wet, you could get sick."

"I don't get sick." he replied quietly but paused a moment, and gave a small tiny smile. "Thank you." Six took another one and actually wrapped it around his head in the same way someone who had hair to dry would. It was almost comical in appearance.

"It's nothing. Anyone would do it." she replied as she moved to turn on the kettle for some tea.

"No. Nobody would do it. Not after what I did." Six said as he began to pat dry his clothes and skin. "After all the horrible..."

"You stopped it happening though, didn't you?" Roxanne pointed out. "You could have unleashed who knows what. But you didn't. You're not evil, Six. You weren't born to be evil. Nobody is."

"So what was my purpose?" Six asked, looking at her with those emotional green eyes. "To be an experiment forever? Is that why my parents sent me into space?"

"No..." Roxanne said soothingly. "That's not why and you know it."

Six stared at her quietly before sighing and began moving down to his chest and sides with the towel before seemingly remembering something and went back to his face and began drying his beard. Roxanne watched him, before moving into the kitchen.

"You've let that grow out a lot, since last I saw you." she commented as she turned the kettle on and retrieved two mugs from her cupboards.

"Huh?" Six asked from the lounge.

"Your beard. Wasn't it a goatee last time I checked?" Roxanne clarified.

The blue alien paused, and moved to a hanging oval mirror that hung on the wall in the lounge and observed himself. His blue skin was taunt and tight, pale in complexion but he had dark rings around his eyes showing his lack of sleep, and possible self control. He looked at his beard, which was wild, unkempt, and still wet. "It was." he mumbled as he reached and ran his fingers through the mass of hair, but found his fingers getting caught on knots.

Catching the reflection of the coffee table behind him he turned and walked to it and crouched in front of the wooden table and picked up the newspaper that had an indent in it, as if it had been sat on by something heavy. The headlines of the newspaper read about another 'problem' with M. Seems not everyone was happy about having a vigilante running around the city, since they had police to do keep the peace and what if everyone took up arms and did what M could do? The problems would be monumental.

"Coffee or tea?" Roxanne called from the kitchen.

"Cocoa." Six replied as he read the article.

"Cocoa. Got ya."

"Coffee's too bitter and tea... I just don't like them." he looked at the photograph used for the article and it made him frown. It was obviously taken from captured footage from three months ago since there was his brain bots biting at the man's cape, legs and arms. He reached out a finger and brushed it against one of the blurred brain bots. "Daddy's sorry." he mumbled quietly before putting the newspaper back down. "Do you still talk to him?"

Roxanne walked into the lounge holding two mugs, looking confused. "Who?"

"M." Six said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Oh. Well, yes. Off the record though, nothing in the newspapers or on the television." she admitted as she knelt besides him and set his cocoa in front of him. "I put in a marshmallow too."

"Marsh. Mallow." Six spoke the word and looked into his mug, and peered with a cautious look at the little white lump.

"Marshmallows. They're soft sweet things that help sweeten up your drink." Roxanne explained, wondering if this was the first time that Six had ever encountered one.

Six picked up a spoon and stirred the drink, watching the white lump spin around with the moving mixture, before blowing on the steam coming off of the mug. Then he took a sip, probably burned his tongue, and set the mug down again. "Nice. I'll have to get more of these marsh-mallows for myself."

"They come highly recommended."

"So what do you talk about?"

"Huh?" the sudden change of subject caught her off guard.

"You and M." Six said as he picked up the newspaper again.

"Well. Any and everything, really. How he's coping. How I'm doing... we wonder where you are, what you're doing because none of us really believed you were dead. Somebody like you... you just don't give into dying that easily." Roxanne said softly as she leaned against her coffee table. "After surviving everything you've survived, bringing a building down on top of yourself is nothing."

He gave her a crooked smile and squeaked a small 'hah' out of the corner of his mouth as if it was a nervous cough. "Well. Thank you for believing in me."

She smiled.

Six suddenly shifted and began removing his boots. Roxanne watched him, before speaking her mind. "What are you doing?"

"I need to drain my legs or they'll get rusty." Six replied as he slipped the calf high boot off of his right leg, revealing the glint of metal. The foot was made from various pieces of metal, all welded together save for some joints that gave it realistic movement. He grabbed the bottom of his pant leg and began to roll it slowly up, revealing the rest of the metal leg all the way up to his knee. Hand crafted, it was like looking at metal muscle structure since everything was there as it would have normally been, if it hadn't been removed the way it had been.

Roxanne could only watch as he did the same with his other leg. "You made those?" she asked quietly.

"My first few sets were made by them." Six replied quietly as he finished rolling up his pant leg. "I was still growing. But after breaking out I had to make my own. So I did. I stopped growing a while back so... I don't have to change them as regularly." he explained as he touched the cold, wet metal. "Where can I drain them?"

"The bathroom." Roxanne replied before realizing that was where she had hidden Minion. She watched, nervously, as he got to his feet and waited for her to show him where it was. He took in the cream and soft pinks of the bathroom before making his way over to the bathtub and sat on the edge of it. While she hated to, Roxanne couldn't help but glancing at the cupboard where the towels, and Minion, were kept before looking back to him.

Six was staring at the bath tub, realizing that he hadn't been within access of one in a long time. Way back when he was only able to wash himself in a white, clean shower stall with large metal knobs that had hurt the palms of his hands when he had to turn them on. And his first real interaction with a bath was to put down that woman from the institute, and for a fleeting moment it felt as though he was back there all over again. The life drained from her eyes, her blood splattered on the floor and walls, the word 'sorry' written out in her own blood by her shaken hand.

He forced the memory away, slamming a door on it and turned his back on it.

Unaware of his short trip down memory lane, Roxanne watched as he was fiddling with something at his knee on his left leg, and she watched with keen interest as he seemed to undo something. With a tug, the whole leg came off entirely, save for the part that was the joint that connected to his real leg, which seemed affixed there and wouldn't be removed without the help of serious surgery. Six grunted, and turned the leg upside down over the tub as dirty black water began to slowly leak from the leg.

"...does it hurt taking them off?" Roxanne asked.

"Hurt? No. Reconnecting them hurt." Six said as he gave the leg a good shake, making sure no water was left inside.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well. I don't think you'd really understand if I used technical speak so I'll use small words." Six almost sounded smug having to dumb things down for her, and she let him have his moment. "The legs move the way in which my brain tells them to so my nerves have to be connected. It's that which hurts most."

Roxanne understood, and gave a nod.

"Oh man looks like I have half the sea in these things!" Six complained as he set his leg down against the bath and soon disconnected his other one, and set it against its twin. "Can I just leave them there for a while?" he asked, and at her nod, he thanked her and floated up off of the bath.

Despite knowing better Roxanne took a breath and stepped back, hand to her mouth. Six looked at her, then down at himself. He was hovering at the right height, he wasn't over doing it was he? Then he realized... "...oh. Y.. yes. I'm sure seeing a... legless alien floating would freak anyone out. I'm-I'm sorry I didn't-"

"No, don't apologize. It just surprised me. I almost forgot how powerful you are. To be honest I was just about to offer if you wanted me to carry you to the lounge!" Roxanne laughed nervously.

Six looked at her, before speaking quietly like a small child daring to ask its parent for a cookie when they knew they shouldn't. "You still could."

Roxanne smiled faintly before walking towards him, showing that she wasn't afraid of him, and held her arms out. "Come on then. Not every day you get to be carried somewhere, huh?"

"No. Not every day." Six said as he moved himself into her arms, unable to work out why she was doing this for him. Both of them knew all too well he could move himself with his powers, that he could even get around without his legs if he truly wanted. But they had become a part of him, of who he was, and he couldn't easily dispose of them. His mind suddenly went blank when she carried him from the bathroom, and he felt her arms around him like that. His hearts beat faster within his chest and he wondered if he was blushing.

"How long does it take them to drain normally?" Roxanne asked as she settled him down onto the couch.

"Depends how wet they are. This time... I'd say an hour or so." Six replied as he got comfortable. "Oh wow this couch is soft."

She laughed, and picked up his mug of cocoa and handed it back to him. "Only the best."

"I guess that makes sense."

And so the two sat on the couch, awaiting Six's legs to drain of the water and for the rest of what he wore to dry too. Obviously he wasn't comfortable enough to take off the clothes, so he only wrapped the towels around his thin frame to keep the cold at bay. Roxanne picked up the television remote and turned on the news, setting the remote between them.

A woman sat behind a grey desk, to her back was a busy office space full of people running back and forth, or sitting in their cubicles working at their computers.

"Oh hey it's Alice." Roxanne mumbled, "I didn't know she was on today..."

"Just to update, for those of you just joining us, the storm warning has risen to level seven, with wind speed estimated to reach well over one hundred and fifty miles per hour." Alice said, as stony faced as she could, though you could see she was somewhat worried in her eyes.

"Over one hundred..." Roxanne echoed, narrowing her eyes. "

"Isn't that enough for a hurricane?" Six asked, glancing at her.

"Close enough." she replied, before getting to her feet and making her way to stare out at the dark sky. It really did look bad, but where had it come from?

"Weather specialists claim the storm will strike Metro City in two days time and are going to issue warnings as to what to do in this time of crisis. Information is available from-" Alice's voice blended with background noise as Roxanne had began to speak again.

"We haven't had a storm like that in a long time." Roxanne murmured.

Six watched her, before glancing at the television that was now showing footage of a regular storm striking Metro City. He watched as the rain poured down on the screen, and felt an odd sensation take hold of him. It seemed as though today was a day for trips down memory lane since the next thing he knew, he was back in his youth, freshly escaped from the underground facility and settling into his new home in the abandoned observatory.

He had jolted awake one night when he heard a strange noise coming from outside. Scared that somehow they had found him, Six had rushed to the nearest window and stared out as the sky seemed to be breaking down above the world. The clouds were thick, black, and rain was being whipped this way and that by strong a mighty wind.

The young alien had never seen rain before. It didn't take long for him to rush out into the down pour and run around, a rare flash of childhood innocence with a boy who had just killed a good number of people in order to escape captivity.

Six stood back, watching his young teenage self take great joy in the simple pleasure of rain, before turning around and found himself watching Roxanne as she stood in the window watching the dark clouds. "Maybe Nature's due for a down pour." he said with a shrug. "It does good to get it all out, doesn't it?" he asked.

"Better out than in?" Roxanne asked, turning to grin at him.

"Better out than in." Six echoed on a faint smile, despite knowing she would never really understand what he had just said, or that it didn't reference the incoming storm at all.

_To be continued_


	5. Chapter 5

Why she had insisted on driving him home boggled his mind, but he managed to talk her out of it. He explained that after night fall he could just fly himself, and his fish, back home without anyone seeing him. For some strange reason he was certain he saw a look of worry, some form of concern, on her face.

It felt strange to have somebody worry over him like that, since the only other people to have done that were always the same people causing him harm in the first place. Still. After his legs were finally drained of murky water and silt he had reattached them, in privacy since he never likes doing that in the presence of others, and left her apartment.

Roxanne had followed him, down the stairs, and had seen him off from the front of the apartment complex. Megamind had waved once, then walked onwards and hadn't turned back until he was well and truly down the far end of the street and Roxanne was already gone.

"...she let me into her apartment." he said to the fish he was carrying in the tank of water in front of him. They, in turn, only stared at him for a moment before they continued to swim in the shifting water, obviously uncomfortable being moved around like this. "Sorry." Six said, before he slowly lifted up off the ground and headed back home.

He had landed safely, and was almost half way up the stairs to his apartment when the bane of his existence appeared.

"What the Hell is that?" he demanded, looking at the fish.

Six mentally swore a storm and moved himself so the fish were somewhat shielded by his slim body. "Fish."

"Pets? You know the policy here! No freakin' pets!" snarled the super.

"They're fish. They aren't noisy." Six pointed out.

"No pets." echoed the man.

"Not like they're a dog that will bark all day and night or a cat that would piss everywhere." Six continued his argument, eyes narrowing slowly.

"No stinkin' pets!" the man was growing red in the face, "They're a waste of space and you shoulda cleared this with me first, ya miserable little Goth!"

Six stared at the man coldly, and he lowered his head slightly and continued to glare at him from under the slight shadow cast by his eyebrows. The air around them suddenly seemed to take on a very dark, dangerous turn. The windows near by rattled, and he could see the anger quickly transform on the man's face to something akin to fear. He suddenly gripped at his chest, and breathed deeply, in quick, sharp breaths.

"Waste of space." Six echoed, "You should look at yourself before you make such accusations about fish."

He was unaware of how all the fish within the tank were now watching him with wide, happy eyes. They even glowed brighter, so happy in themselves to finally be back in the presence of their master, their real sir who had created them. The blue alien who had rescued them from the water... he had looked like their boss, but he hadn't acted like him. He didn't _feel_ like him. Now, though. There was no doubt.

The super almost collapsed when the pain in his heart suddenly stopped as quickly as it had started. Fish forgotten, the man stumbled away, mind racing with plans to call doctors and hospitals to get tests done before his heart starts to feel like it would explode again.

Six was suddenly struck by the guilt, and the anger on his face vanished as quickly as it had happened. "Oh. Oh no..." he said shakily, turning away and hurried up the rest of the stairs to the safety of his small room. Setting the fish down on his bed he hurried to the single mirror that hung in his room and stared at the reflection, once removing the disguise generator.

He had almost crushed the super's heart in his chest. All because of... what, he didn't want his fish here?

_"You know why. Waste of space. Isn't that what they called you, after everything happened? You wouldn't use your powers. You wouldn't move things. One of those men called you a waste of space before turning on the pain conductors. Pinned into our__**brain**__to hurt us into doing what they wanted. We never did, though. We were brilliant."_

Six stepped away from the mirror quickly, since his mouth had certainly moved and those words had come from his mouth but _he_ hadn't said any of it. He stared at the mirror, watching himself intently. The reflection had moved twice today, now a third time, but with words attached. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

But what had triggered this? Roxanne? Surely not... she had done nothing but be kind to him, and yet he was certain he had seen his reflection look at her with such an amount of hatred in his eyes that he was surprised she hadn't felt a chill run up her spine. Or maybe she had, but she was that good at hiding what she felt she had hidden it from him?

_"Who's to stop her from hiding more from us?"_ asked the mirror.

"Shut up." Six snapped suddenly. "You don't know her."

_"Neither do you."_ shot back the reflection, now moving of its own accord in the mirror. _"So she kissed me,__**me**__once, and that was enough to bring you back you think that makes her yours and yours alone? You're a child, nothing but a child. Let me back. Let me back in my body."_

"It isn't your body it's mine. You... you were... my legs..." Six looked down at his metal legs with a shameful look on his face. Once upon a time there was no whispering, no second voice. It had been only him and Minion, and after their failed escape and the horrible operation that had happened afterwards... "You're the wrong one."

The reflection, Megamind, did not like this. He suddenly screamed in frustration and slammed his fist against the mirror. It shattered at the point of contact and spider webbed out until the mirror now looked like somebody had gone at it with a baseball bat. _"I'M THE STRONG ONE! ME! YOU'RE NOTHING! YOU'RE__**NOTHING!"**_

Six waved a hand and the glass completely shattered and fell to the floor, tinkling pleasantly as it spread across the floor.

_"I'll get you, one day. I will."_ His voice was nothing but a whisper now, falling back into the darkness of his mind and Megamind was gone, easily contained for now but Six had to wonder how long he could do that. How long could he contain the anger, the bitter resentment that had fuelled his every move for so many years? Why had he ever thought it would be easy, as simple as closing a door and moving house, to move on from it all?

"Because I'm an idiot." he muttered as he made some space on the floor and placed the fish tank down on it, and knelt in front of the glowing fish that were, once more, idly swimming around the water and acting like any ordinary fish. "The legacy I was building is nothing but a few mute fish and... and me."

He needed Minion. Even though he now knew Minion's voice was nothing but his own, he needed to be able to hold the fish's ball in his hands, to feel his presence. That always seemed to root him to the ground again, but Minion was lost to him now and it was all his fault.

~*~

"I don't know how to tell him." Roxanne said as she sat on her couch, looking at the small round ball that had been taken from the bathroom cupboard and placed back on the coffee table in front of her.

In the window stood M, as large and powerful as he had been three months ago. The man took a few steps forward and knelt, touching a finger to his pointed chin as he stared at the fish. "You're lucky he didn't find him. I hate to think what kind of reaction seeing his dead friend in your hands would have done."

"That's what I was afraid of!" she replied, "You saw what he could do to that building, imagine what he would do if he got angry, or, or scared and thought I was just leading him along or something. You know how paranoid people can be, Six is.. Six is six times that! Maybe even more then that."

M reached out and picked up the ball with the fish inside and crossed his legs, despite the fact he was hovering in mid air while doing so. "So you brought a criminal mad man into your apartment..." he said, before looking at her with a judging look on his face. "You shouldn't have done that. You place too much trust in him."

"And you don't put enough in." Roxanne said back calmly. What was it with men hovering in front of her?

"Sorry, but it was dangerous. If there had been a trigger he could have leveled this place faster than I could have arrived to help." he explained his frustration, "If anything had happened to you I don't know how I could live with myself."

Roxanne flushed, despite her best efforts, and smiled faintly. "That's very sweet. But I'm not a total woman in distress you know. I can take pretty good care of myself, evidently by getting out of my first meeting with Six since all those months ago unscathed."

"Which I'm very impressed by." M smiled, setting the dead fish back on the table. "But it's not safe to keep something this big from him. Next time he gets in contact with you, you need to tell him exactly what happened."

"You do know how crazy that sounds, right?" Roxanne asked, "That I was just walking along the pier and found the ball in the water? He'd never believe me. He'd... he'd think I found him and is using him to lure him into a trap or, or something crazy like that."

"It's not that crazy. I believe you." M pointed out.

"You're not Six." she said, before lifting her hand and rubbed her temple. "He went inside his head so many times that he was here. He was thinking... so deeply sometimes, or it looked like he was remembering things, painful things. He couldn't even use the elevator because of what happened to him."

M said nothing, because he knew what Roxanne was talking about. They had discussed the contents of the folders that how flooded her bedroom, about what kind of experiments had been done on the alien. How could people be so cruel in the name of science? Six was still a living creature, someone who deserved peace, respect, and a feeling of home. None of which Six had received whilst living in that underground facility, much less afterwards and escaping into a world full of people who would judge him based on looks alone before getting to know what a broken, scared creature he was.

It was that which had molded him into what he had become. A mad man with a strong desire for revenge and he even had gone after all who had hurt him… and eliminated them all, one by one.

"...So you really wouldn't know what to do with yourself if I got hurt?" Roxanne asked, wanting to jump to another subject since talking about Six for too long just depressed her and right now she didn't want that cloud hanging over her like the big, dark one that was moving in from the North towards Metro City as if it had a plan.

M chuckled and unfolded his legs and walked over to her, before easing himself onto the arm of the couch and supported himself with his arm resting on the back of it. "Well what can I say? What happened between us is something that... forged something. It doesn't help that you're beautiful as anything, either."

"Well now that is a compliment." Roxanne replied with a smirk as she looked up at him. "And what does my beauty have to do with you feeling bad for yourself? Would you feel bad you wouldn't have anyone pretty to look at anymore?" she teased.

"Now you know it isn't like that." M said. "Don't you feel it, something there?" he asked. "Something neither of us has really tried putting words to, something that we're unsure of but we can't fully ignore it either?"

Roxanne sighed and brushed a hand through her hair. It was hard to reject the idea of her and M doing something incredibly enjoyable with one another, but what would that bring? Heroes were always targeted by the bad guys and ever since Megamind/Six turned tail, a few more villains had taken up root in the city. If word got around that M was involved with someone, star news reporter Roxanne Ritchi for example, what kind of life would she be in for? She had seen those movies about super heroes, how their weakness for the love of the people they care for was always used against them.

She didn't want to become something like that. But she couldn't deny the attraction to the handsome, square jawed, strong man who flew into her life.

"I don't even know your real name." Roxanne said pointedly. "And you already told me you'll never tell me. As strong as this attraction is, I don't think I'm willing to commit to anything with somebody whose name is a mystery to me. Plus, if there _is_ going to be anything happening here do you really think you could-"

Her explanation was cut short because M had closed the space between them, and was kissing her. Roxanne felt her body freeze up for a brief moment before she kissed him in return, arms lifting and wrapping themselves around his neck. It was probably something both had wanted, at some point, but the moment never seemed like the right one. But was this the right time? Roxanne was soon pulling away from him, trying to catch the breath that had been so suddenly ripped from her lungs.

"...okay. That... hm." she licked her lips quickly, feeling the heat rising to her cheeks. "Look. You're... really..." Roxanne moved her hands to his shoulders and tried to ignore the muscle strength she could feel through his costume. "Look. I'm really, really flattered. You have a whole city of women who'd trade anything to be in my position right now..."

"But?" M asked, tilting his head slightly. "If you ask me, you're worrying too much. If there's one thing being who I am, and seeing the things I've seen taught me, it's that life is for living. Not just for watching and wanting."

"So you've been watching and wanting me, then?" she asked quietly.

"Yes." he replied honestly. "You're beautiful, smart, kind hearted, funny, and I love the beauty spot you've got right here." M tapped the spot on her face gently. "I might not be the smartest man in town but if you really don't want this, I'm smart enough to know to step away but I can't help but notice you haven't pushed me away, nor have you let go of me yet."

Roxanne realized he was right. She felt her face heat up once more, just as it had when he had been complimenting her the way he had done so. Any woman would have loved to be told such things, to be held in the arms by somebody like him, strong, reliable, and handsome to boot. So why was a little part of her mind telling her not to give in to what she wanted? She wasn't a prude, or a virgin, so why would having at least one moment with this man a bad thing?

"You still with me, Roxy?" M asked, "You're spacing out a little."

She laughed, and shook her head. "Sorry. This is a lot to take in, it's been a crazy couple of days and with the storm about to hit tonight I can't help it."

"Want some help getting your mind off things, then? One time only offer, if that's the way you want it to be." he offered, "After this, I won't ask again. And we can forget it happened, if we want to."

The brunette stared at the man for a long moment, before smiling slightly. "Oh, screw it. Offer accepted."

~*~

The endless landscape went on forever, and no matter what direction he looked there was nothing on the horizons. No trees, mountains, rocks, not even dust kicked up by a breeze because there _was_ no breeze here. It was nothing but white floors, for as far as he could see.

Six looked up at the sky, and saw it too was nothing but a pale bluish white. There were no clouds, yet no heat.

"Where am I?" he asked the vast open landscape, half hoping for a reply.

When he got one he leapt away like a panic stricken kitten.

"In your mind, Sir." the voice brought tears immediately to the blue aliens face.

"Minion?" Six asked desperately, looking everywhere. "Where are you, Minion?"

"Behind you, Sir." Minion said.

He spun around so fast he could hear the gears in his metal legs grind against one another. And there, stood before him, was Minion. Well, he wasn't really standing more like floating. Just how he had appeared to him all his life only... not in his ball. He was a simple glowing green fish suspended in the air like a puppet being controlled by invisible strings.

"MINION!"

The fish was suddenly enveloped in skinny blue arms, and the toothy grin and healthy glow of his body was the only way he could express, without words, how happy he was.

"You made it back to me." Six mumbled against the top of fish's head. "I thought I lost you."

"You did for a while, Sir." Minion replied quietly, "But I waited, and I knew you'd come back. I'm so glad you did, Sir."

"I'm so scared." Six said, eyes shutting tightly.

"There's a storm on the horizon." the fish stated, "I've seen it, Sir."

"A storm..." he opened his eyes and looked down at the fish in his hands, which now seemed happy to be held rather then float there spookily, "There's a big storm hitting tonight, in the city... is that..."

"There's a storm coming, Sir, and she's going to be a big one." stated Minion grimly.

Six stared at Minion for a moment before snorting. "You're being very cryptic, Minion."

The fish laughed, and Six felt something in his hearts almost physically melt at the sound of it. He hadn't heard Minion laugh in so long, it was on par of being hugged by somebody. Or at least, that's what he guessed. Hugging was another thing that just 'did not happen' in his life. "I'm sorry Sir, I don't mean to be. But I can only say some things, not everything."

"Guess that's what comes from being a spiritual fish, huh?" Six asked feebly.

Minion grinned. "Something like that." the grin vanished and was replaced with a humble expression. "I must apologize to you Sir, for leaving the way I had. I thought you were lost to me, but now I see that was not you back there. That's the part _they_ made."

Six didn't have to ask who, or what, Minion was talking about. So Minion knew about him, too? The darkness, that voice of anger and loathing that had shattered his mirror by sheer force of will, and who could take over him. His green eyes welled for a moment but he did not cry, he simply did not allow himself to. "He keeps showing me things. Memories I don't want." the image of the woman in the bath tub flashed in his mind momentarily, and then a horrible white room with men and women in green protective body suits as he saw one man hand his left leg to somebody as if it was an every day occurrence.

"He is very strong, Sir. The anger gives him strength. You need to fight against him. You need to become your own, now." Minion explained, one of his small fins fanning out, as if it were a hand to caress the blue hand holding him.

"How?" Six asked weakly, suddenly feeling as though he was one hundred years old.

"That is up to you to decide." Minion said before looking upwards suddenly. "The storm is about to come, Sir. You need to be ready."

Six opened his mouth to speak, but Minion interrupted.

"You need to be ready, and don't believe what she says. Don't believe her!" Minion's voice grew with intensity and importance. "Remember!"

"I-I-" Six started, but then the horizon vanished in a flash of brilliant light. A howling wind picked up, and Six bent over himself, shielding Minion with his body from the violent winds. In the distance he heard glass shattering, and a flash of light illuminated the world again.

He opened his eyes and found himself alone in his bed, clutching at his pillow. Outside, the howling screams of the window and storm clawed at the world outside, with flashes of lightning lighting up the skies. There was broken glass on his floor, his window having been smashed open by the sheer force of the wind. Now because of that rain was now blowing into his apartment, wetting the floor and the end of his bed.

Six jolted and immediately set up a mental barrier, stopping the rain from pouring in and picking up the shards of glass, despite the fact if he stepped on them it wouldn't matter seeing how his feet were made of metal. He absently reached for his small bin and the glass shards flew into it, and he set it asides as he got out of bed and walked past the glowing fish tank on the floor and stared out his window at the storm.

The news reporters had been right. It was one Hell of a storm, the way lightning struck at the ground, and even at some buildings. The wind whipped the rain this way and that, seeming unable to decide just what direction to go in since it was that angry at the world.

For a moment a voice spoke up from the back of his head, a familiar one, and it only said one thing.

"Remember."

"...remember _what?_" Six asked aloud, which in turn was very alarming since he normally remembered everything...

_To be continued_


	6. Chapter 6

The storm was like one that you read about in stories, or saw in movies. This type of storm you expect a hero to run into in order to save the one he loved, or to watch a mighty pirate ship battle against another in the throngs of the ocean and the roar of the waves. Alas, this was a storm that was lashing at the fair Metro City as if it were a naughty child who had to be punished for speaking out of turn.

Metro City was a fairly industrial one; there were very few trees save for the park in the centre of town, but any and the flora were being punished just as badly as the buildings. The gales were strong, causing the tallest trees to loose their grip on their poor leaves and to let them fly free in the turbulent wind. Thinner trees bowed from the mighty wind, some growing very close to snapping.

Those people who lived in the suburbs were under attack by the trees surrounding them, heavy branches hanging on high trees stood no hope of surviving an onslaught of wind such as this. They went falling onto cars, pulled down power lines, and even smashed into houses and garages.

Where the ocean met the city, there was no beach, which meant there was nothing to separate the large waves that came crashing down upon the docks, nothing to try and ease the pain of the storm. Waves as tall as four story buildings crashed against the strong buildings, smashing out windows, filling car yards with water, and unbeknownst to some helped to flood a long forgotten underground facility.

Those who had time to plan were well prepared. They stayed inside their homes, gathered together, with food, water, and a means of power since it wasn't too long until the power to the city was suddenly cut off. Every building and house of Metro City, that didn't have its own power generator like the hospitals and police stations, were plunged into darkness.

Roxanne was up in her apartment when the power went off, and easily snatched up her faithful red flashlight. Turning it on she looked around her loft before daring to peek outside at the storm. Her doors that opened onto a small balcony were protected from inside, so if the chance something came flying in and hit the glass she wouldn't be showered in it. Outside the skies were jet black, and the only time anything was visible was when lightning would light up the skies for a brief second before plunging back into darkness.

She only hoped that Six was all right.

~*~

The blue alien sat in his small apartment and was watching his fish. They flinched when the lightning filled the skies, just like any sentient animal would. To think, they had the brain power to do all sorts of things yet were confined to only small fish bodies. Six wondered what harm would it do, to give them some bodies...? To make them translators, implant them in their head like Minion had and just... have a family? There weren't that many of them. With the right amount of metal and pieces of do dads and such, he could make them bodies.

He watched as one with green eyes paused in its swimming to look at him, and they held eye contact for a long while until the fish finally moved away, bumping into another one that bared its teeth at it for moving in on its personal space. The green eyed one swam away quickly from the red eyed one, who was fanning its fins out in an attempt to look bigger than it already was.

"Don't be a bully." Six mumbled and prodded the glass near the red-eyed fish. It blinked in alarm both at this, and the flash of lightning, and swam away to seek shelter behind two other fish.

"...Still. I don't see why not." he continued his train of thought from before, lifting a hand to stroke at his beard and frowned when he realized his moustache was thickly growing in fast. "You'd be no harm to anyone, I could find a bigger place to live in... Course I'd _then_ have to make a whole heap of disguise generator watches so you could go out and about. I would have to de-program the self defence of attacking everyone you see first, easily done... wait how would I get all this done anyway? Ugh."

Six leaned back and pressed his palms to his eyes and pressed slightly until he saw stars.

There were still so many plans swimming around in his head, and he had no way to drain them. If only he could drain them as easily as the scientists had drained his brain fluid, turning on a small tube and they would be gone, no longer a bother to him. The ideas sounded good, plausible, but how easily would it be for Megamind to turn it into something else entirely? He would start out with good intentions, but would they remain that way?

It was so frustrating. Like an artist, talented and gifted, having his hands bound and leaving him in front of piles of paints and empty canvases. What could he do, other than stare at them longingly, wishing he could paint?

_You've got your feet and your mouth, haven't you?_

Six blinked and stared at his fish.

_A great painter would remove his shoes and use them to paint instead. If he could not do that, he would grip the brush in his teeth. Brilliant men always find a way. You're more brilliant than everyone on this planet. Find a way._

That was him thinking that, wasn't it? Not Megamind. But _himself._ Where had that confidence come from? Had Roxanne placed that confidence in him from only meeting with him that one day?

"Roxanne." Six got to his feet and rushed over to the shattered window and stared out at the storm that continued to rage. He couldn't see very far at all, but he knew in what direction she lived. Was she all right? She was a big girl, a grown up, and he knew she would be capable of taking care of herself but a part of him couldn't help but worry. So what did he do when he was worried?

He felt for her.

The spread of his power washed over the area he was in, and spread out like an invisible growing bubble. He picked up, if for no longer than a split millisecond, everyone around him until he found the one he was after. She was lying on her bed and she was reading a book by help of a red flashlight in her hand. Six could hear the breathing of her lungs, beating of her heart, and briefly read her mind as she was reading the book. It was a tawdry romance novel, she didn't think it was very realistic, yet continued reading it anyway. She was suddenly thinking of him, though he couldn't think why. Roxanne was reading the name Bernard and was suddenly at the train of thought that spoke 'Six needs a new name'.

Six took a staggering breath, and pressed a hand to his forehead. "New name?" he asked himself, wondering why she would be thinking that of him, and at this time. Had her mind picked up that it was being intruded upon, knew who, and the name brought on the thought?

He couldn't work it out for the next thing he knew there was somebody at the window and it scared the life out of him.

She hovered there, amongst the storm, outside his window with the oddest look he had ever seen on a persons face before. She looked awestruck, her clear white eyes large and open, red painted lips opened making a perfect 'o', while her long white hair was whipped around her head by the raging winds. Her outfit was fairly simple, it was a one piece overall suit. The color was faded, but once it might have been a deep blue. The shoulders had been undone and it was tied around her middle, revealing a white tank top with a word written across her chest that, too, had faded. It was very hard to read but it looked like a number. She didn't even wear any shoes, maybe she'd lost them?

It didn't help that she was incredibly beautiful either. She looked like the type of woman one expected to see on red carpets, or walking down fashion walks in the latest clothing... not hanging above the ground in filthy clothing in the middle of a storm.

Six and the strange woman stared at each other for a few silent seconds before Six let out a scream, sounding like a woman who had been walked in on in the shower... mainly because he wasn't wearing his disguise at the time at all. He was blue, and she was hovering there, why was she hovering there? At his scream, she screamed back, matching his voice with her own higher pitched one.

The storm seemed to scream in unison, a rumbling thunder tumbling through the city and rocked the world in its shock.

Only after this did the alien do what any normal, powerful alien would do at the time. He pushed her away with a great force and she flew back before twisting out of the sudden push to return to the window, only now she was smiling at him like a puppy who had been thrown a stick to catch.

He didn't know what to do, or what to say. He had been so careful all this time, nobody but Roxanne knew who he was. Now this... floating white eyed, white haired woman knew where he was. Who was she? Was she from around here? Was she hanging there by invisible wires? Had she sought him out on purpose? Or was this a happy accident? There were too many questions to ask, far too many, so all he could do was stare at her with wide green eyes.

"I can not believe zat I 'ave found you!" she finally announced, setting off alarm bells in his mind instantly. "And on my first day! I thought zat it would take me at least a week to locate you!" the woman had a very thick accent, too. French.

"Looking for me." Six echoed the phrase, and his green eyes slowly moved from shocked wideness to annoyed anger, and his eyebrows narrowed. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" he demanded.

She placed her hands over her mouth in surprise before laughed and spun around once, her long white hair curling around her like a ribbon before falling loose again. "Sorry! Zat was very rude of me but you must see zat I came 'ere to find you!"

"Yes you said that." he replied testily, "Who are you?"

The woman landed on the windowsill, her toes curling against the wood and gripped it so she wouldn't fall. An odd movement since she could fly, so falling wouldn't mean the end of her at all. She gripped at an invisible skirt and curtsied to him. "I am Lady Doppler."

He got to his feet and made his way to the window, and grabbed at the broken shutter. If he could he would shut it on her, but he remembered the glass was broken and out of commission. So he just gripped at it and stared at her. "Why are you looking for me?" he asked cautiously, and if she were foolish enough to lie to him while he read her mind and found something out, she would be dead before the sentence would leave her lips.

"I 'ave come to join you." Lady Doppler said, and as he quickly read her mind he was shocked by what he saw there. "_Please let me, oh God please. I have no where else to go. I don't know what to do._

"You're very late. You _do_ realize I'm no longer in control of the city, don't you?" Megamind asked, watching the white haired woman's face. "My empire's been reduced to a few mute fish and little else."

Lady Doppler looked at him imploringly, and placed her hands together. "S'il vous plaît, you do not know what I 'ave done to get 'ere." she begged. "What I 'ave been through."

"Come here." he gestured for her to move closer, and he was a little alarmed at how willingly she moved closer to him, like a puppy being called by its master. "I'll find out." with that he pressed both his hands to her head and his eyes suddenly turned bright white to match her own.

There was a heavy collar around her neck. She knew if she flew out of the area she was allowed to work in it would detonate and she would die. It was impossible for her to shock it off, because any electrical charge entered into it would return ten fold, and being electrocuted enough times as a young child taught her to not mess around like that. She could control the weather, it was her gift, but that did not mean she was immune to lightning. The little white haired girl had been found abandoned in the woods after a forest fire, and a large cloud had taken out the fire in such a short amount of time some had claimed it was God's doing.

How quickly they learned she could bring on storms, hurricanes, storms, wild winds... and how quickly she was snatched up from the orphanage she had called home. Like the young Six she had been given a number, not a name, and tested daily. She wasn't gifted mentally like him, there were no tests of numbers, letters, mathematics or anything along those lines. Simply testing her abilities, to see if she could be used as a weapon of war. Who could fight back against Mother Nature? Who could battle a thunderbolt so powerful it could knock out security systems?

Then she'd become an adult and another kind of 'treatment' had begun, the kind that wasn't written down in books but happened behind locked doors where a young woman couldn't properly defend herself or call upon her powers to protect her. Megamind felt a swell of rage and bitter hatred at the human race suddenly rise up within him like a mighty tsunami called forth by nature itself and he pushed past that, crashing through the memories of the woman before him until he found her escape. The woman had played to her abilities, sexually, had gotten a young apprentice to fall for her. He'd helped her escape only to be gunned down by others. She'd heard tell of the blue alien in America in control of a city from the sidelines; she even knew his name had been Six.

Seems all underground shady facilities shared information. Had he ever found anything about a woman who controlled the weather? He hadn't been looking. It very well might have been. What mattered now though, is she had sought him out for somewhere to belong. Somewhere to _be_.

He let go of her head and his eyes returned to their acidic green and he stared at her as she looked as if she was waking up from a long sleep.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est..." she mumbled, touching her forehead.

"Memory read. Found out I could do it years ago." Megamind replied before looking past her to the world outside. "Come in. Unless you want somebody to see you."

"Merci!" Lady Doppler enthused as she flew in and landed on the floor, drenching the carpet. "Oh, you have ze leetle fishes!" she spotted the fish and scooted closer, while the fish watched her intently. "Zey are so cute."

"If you say so." he said as he watched the fish as they watched her, before looking back at him as if awaiting some kind of order like, 'should we bite her fingers if she puts them in here?'. He sat on the edge of his wet bed and looked at the woman with the long white hair that ran down her back like a cascading water fall, only to pool and spread out where the floor started. It was very long. She hadn't cut it in many, many years. "...so you risked coming to America, from Europe, to find me."

"Oui." she nodded, turning her head to look at him. "You are ze only other alien zat zis planet has. Well. Zat is known of." Lady Doppler corrected herself. "I am not human. I can not be." she looked at her hands, and turned them over as she observed the broken nails, caked with dirt and grime. "'Tho I look et, I do not feel et. So... so I came to find ze other alien."

"Everyone believed I was dead. Why didn't you?" Megamind asked.

Lady Doppler stared at him for a moment, before placing a hand to her heart. "You 'ad to be. I just... I need you, and my 'eart told me zat you were still alive. Just hiding. Someone as brilliant as you were, and are, would not die so easily."

Megamind felt a flush suddenly rush over his body, but he forced it back, not allowing this woman to get to him like that. She only wanted something. She wanted him? How? His protection? Companionship? What was he, a body guard? He was also in two minds to tell her that the hero, M, was an alien too. That she wasn't that lone but... he was glamorous. He was the kind of hero people could get behind, despite it all, and what if she abandoned him to run to be with him instead?

He couldn't have that. She was the first real person on this planet to want him, just for wanting sake. Quite possibly she would be the last, too. She didn't want his power like the Doom Syndicate had... this lady was very different. Plus he couldn't deny the attraction of her storm powers, since just looking out the window told him how powerful she was. He had played with the idea of a weather control device years ago but had found it somewhat hard to undertake yet here was the answer to his prayers from all those years ago, wanting to help him.

It was perfect.

Then that annoying little part of him, Six, spoke up, that it would be mean to know her just for that. He had wanted people to want to know him for him all his life, so why treat her any different? Unfortunately this spoke to a part of Megamind that he didn't particularly like, but had a grudging respect to. Yes, he too had been a scared, lonely child once upon a time. He had wanted friends, people like him. Minion was nothing but a ghost to him, and while he was a comfort... he wasn't enough. He wanted something physical.

And here she was. Years late, but she was here.

"Are you all right, monsieur Mind?" Lady Doppler's voice pulled him out of his deep thought.

"You must know something." he said stiffly, looking down at her.

"Oui?" she asked.

"There are two of me. There's me, the very confident villain Megamind but I'm also sometimes Six, the very weepy needy thing. Believe me you'll know when I'm not me. Just. Just coddle Six, it's all he wants." Megamind explained curtly.

She stared at him blankly before her white eyes widened to almost twice their size. "A-are you going to let me stay?" she asked.

Megamind stared at her blankly, before looking at what she was wearing. "First you need a wardrobe change. After that? Yes. You can."

What happened after startled him so badly he literally froze over like a statue. One moment the woman had been sitting on the floor besides the fish tank, the next her arms were around him, her face buried into his neck and her whole body pressing against his own. Naturally since he was sitting she had to kneel before him to do so, but even then she had to bend herself forward since she was taller than him. Megamind sat there, rigid, and unknowing what to do.

His arms moved, finally, of their own violation and his hands placed themselves on her back as he held onto her, and in a strange way Lady Doppler was hugged by not only Megamind, but Six as well. She pulled back as quickly as she had embraced him but kept her hands to his shoulders and she was smiling fit to burst. It was as if he stared into her smile too long it might permanently blind him, it was that dazzling and combine that with her white hair, and eyes, it was quite striking.

"Merci, merci!" Lady Doppler cried, "Oh, zat means ze world to me! I will do anything, I promise! Merci!"

"A-all right." he stammered, grasping at her hands and making her let go of him. Hugging wasn't something he had experienced much of, but if that's what it was like... Six gave a small smile, an awkward and hopeful one. "Uh, do you think you could end the storm please? I think it's been enough..."

Lady Doppler made a surprised noise, then scrambled to her feet and hurried over to the window. She wondered if this was the 'other' half of the blue alien, the quieter, calmer one. He sounded just the same, to be totally honest, but there was an aura around him that seemed to shift. The fact he had requested it in such a polite way also told her it wasn't Megamind anymore but, what was it, Six? She had to focus on the task at hand though, and lifted both of her hands. With an odd gesture that looked like a wave crossed with the Macarena the rain stopped slowly, easing into nothing while the lightning and thunder purred into silence. Lady Doppler then seemed to draw in the sky with a finger and in the place she had pointed, clouds cleared, and the sunlight came bursting into the world. Spinning around she smiled at him, batting her lashes.

"Good?" she asked.

"Wow." Six said as he got up and moved to stand besides her at the window, staring out at a city that had finally been given a break after the horrific storm had plagued it for only a few hours. "That's amazing..." he said, since it truly was. He looked up at the woman and realized just how tall she was when standing besides him. Her shoulders were basically at the top of his head, and that was without any shoes on her feet. "So... so you were born with your powers?"

Lady Doppler gave an odd little nod. "Oui, I think so. Et ez not a power people can possess, and I was found alone in ze woods with no family. Plus, ze DNA tests zat were done on me told zem I 'ad more linking pairs to my structure zan anyone else in Europe at ze time."

"I have more than anyone alive." Six mumbled as he stared out at the city, and leaned on the railing and glanced over at the world, to watch people slowly walk out of buildings and into rain drenched roads scattered with broken branches of trees. "It's not easy. Being the only one of something."

He froze when he felt her hand land on his shoulder, and remained so as she gently caressed his back. "Non, et ez not. But zat ez why we must stick together, oui?" she asked, seemingly unaware of what personal space was. Or maybe she was just touch hungry? Positive touch hungry? From what he had seen what touch she had experienced hadn't always been pleasant. Unlike himself, where touch was next to non-existent.

"...y-yes." Six stammered before moving away from her and looked up at the taller woman, and seemed to suddenly realize how tired she looked. How long had she been running? She looked unwashed, dirty, and she had bags under her eyes. "You should sleep." he said.

"Sleep?" she echoed the phrase, before looking at his bed, then at the floor. "Oh... I guess I should..." Lady Doppler then began to crouch as if she was about to lay on the bed.

Six reached out, and grabbed at her forearm. His boldness shocked himself, and he let go of her since she looked shocked too. "No. My bed. You need your rest... i-it's not the most comfortable but it'll do for now?" he asked.

"I could not sleep in your bed, monsieur..." she started.

"I insist." Six said firmly. "Please. I have. You'll be safe here."

"I will?" Lady Doppler asked, moving towards the bed with a hint of uncertainty on her face.

"I'll make sure of it."

She smiled at him and reached out and traced her finger from his cheek to his bristled chin. "I think I will like staying with you, mousier." she said before climbing onto the bed after pulling the sheets back, and climbed onto it. Her white hair easily pooled over the mattress, even going so far as to reach the floor. He had never seen so much hair on a person before. It was amazing!

_She's_ amazing.

Six shook his head quickly, and moved away from the bed and sat by his fish tank again in order to pick up their fish food (dried shrimp) and feed them. There'd be no point in turning on his television, no doubt the power was out and would be out for a long time. But once his... guest had rested up a bit, they could set to work to getting her cleaned up and dressed. She really did need something else to wear, and now he really would have to build another disguise generator watch. No way would people let a white haired, white-eyed woman walk by them and not say or do anything.

Suddenly he found himself with a lot of plans running around in his head... and he _loved_ it.

_To be continued_


	7. Chapter 7

The woman slept through that day, night, and part way through the next day. This alone spoke volumes about how exhausted she was, and how badly she needed the rest before her body would have collapsed somewhere dangerous from exhaustion.

Sounds of tinkering greeted her as those pure white eyes slowly blinked open, and for a few horrifying seconds she wondered where she was. The room wasn't familiar, it was cramp, somewhat dirty, and she could smell fish water somewhere. But then the memories flooded back in a rush and she remembered that she had found him, and he had given her refuge. She calmed immediately and sat up in the small, lumpy bed she had called home for almost two days straight and rubbed at her eyes.

"Oh so you're awake, good." his voice came from near the small television set and he was sat at a very short table. It was one you'd see in a Japanese house, what with how short the legs were. Spread out over it was pieces of metal, gears, wires, and a glowing blue binky. "Feeling better?"

Lady Doppler looked at him, wondering which one she was talking to. Six? Megamind? A middle ground? She had heard about split personality disorders, from movies and novels she was allowed to entertain herself with, but she had never met a person with two minds. Course, going by how huge his head was it made sense he'd have two personalities up there fighting for dominance even if he hadn't suffered as she had suffered. Still, she smiled at him and nodded. "Oui, much better." she arched her back and yawned loudly, covering her mouth with her hand as quickly as she could.

"You're just in time." Six said as he lifted up a white banded watch. "I just made you this."

She gasped and climbed out of the bed and scooted over to him. "You made me somezeng?" she asked, eyes wide. Nobody had ever made her anything before, not from scratch like this.

"Uh. Y-yes." he stammered before holding out the watch for her to take. "It's a disguise generator. It can scan any image of a person, and it'll project that as your appearance. It's mostly how I get around town without anyone freaking out and calling the cops and M on me. It's waterproof too, so getting caught out in the rain won't power it off."

"M...? Oh! Oui, ze big man with ze muscles." Lady Doppler nodded as she took the watch and turned it over in her hands. It was like a little piece of art, how detailed and delicate it was. Had he made it, or had he snuck out to buy a real watch to convert? It looked... home made, but worked at hard enough so it would look store bought. He had put a lot of time and effort into it, obviously. "...are you two still fighting?" she asked cautiously, glancing up at him.

"He thinks I'm dead, so no." Six replied, unknowing of the truth. I don't think I could even manage being on the same street as him."

"What did he do to you, Monsieur Mind?" she asked as she strapped the watch onto her left wrist.

Six sat there in contemplative silence before picking up his glowing binky and turned it over in his hands slowly. "It doesn't matter." he said quietly, looking at the only thing he had left that connected him to his parents. "It's all in the past." besides, if she knew M was an alien too she might jump ship and go hide amongst his brilliant mansion where she could live easily, not in the small ratty hole that he called home.

Lady Doppler cooed and reached out, stroking the side of his large head with the back of her hand. "You 'ave your peace, zat ez what matters, oui?"

Six froze under her touch again; this was something that was going to take _some_ getting used to. Roxanne's touch normally brought on the same kind of reaction, though she had only really touched him once since the whole incident all those months ago and that was to carry him into her lounge. Lady Doppler's touching though, it felt... different. How could it be different? He didn't understand, and that scared him. He didn't like not knowing something.

"Y-yeah. Anyway. Do you want to wash up before I take you outside?" Six asked, very subtly moving away from her hand and looked up at her.

"You 'ave a shower?" she asked, peering around the small room, trying to find a door other than the only one that led outside to the hallway.

"Uh no. It's a shared facility here." Six explained, "And the doors don't lock."

She looked somewhat put out by this, since she was used to the facility back where she had grown up with full security. Sure it had been a prison but it had been a somewhat 'free' prison, meaning she could fly if she wanted... just not out of their zone unless she wanted to die horribly when the collar on her neck detonated. The device still hung there, but powered down by the young man who had given his life so she could escape.

"Don't worry!" he explained, "I can stand guard for you. I won't let anyone in-"

Then she was hugging him again in thanks, and his face erupted with a color of violet that tinged his ears it was that powerful. He gripped at her shoulders before somehow turning that into some form of awkward embrace before pushing her back. "Sorry I. I'm not used to... this."

"Oui, neizzer am I." she admitted, "But I 'ave wanted to do et for so long. E-ef you do not want me to, I can stop..."

The guilt was smothering him. "What? N-no, no. I mean. Good touch is a good thing right? We should... We both should get used to it. Right?" Six asked before very slowly, hesitantly, reached out to her as if fearing touching her would burn his hand. But his hand found her bared forearm and he placed his palm against it, her, and gave her an uneven smile. Then he realized his hand was filthy from grease and grime and jumped back, "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

"Et ez all right Monsieur, I am going to clean up oui?" she asked before suddenly jumping to her feet, towering over him even more than usual.

"Oui. I mean yes. But, but first..." he got to his feet quickly and gestured to the metallic collar around her neck. "Does that come off?"

"Non." she shook her head. "I 'ave not been able to get et off since I escape."

That was worrying. Six boldly reached up and touched the metal, and Lady Doppler asked as his eyes suddenly narrowed. He was thinking, wasn't he? Or was he doing something to it? Because suddenly the collar began making clicking and grinding noises, as if gears and wires inside were being awoken. But if he turned it back on it would explode, and they'd both die as soon as they found each other! A hidden, scared part of her mind asked if that was such a bad thing. If they both died, neither of them could be hunted down ever again.

But she had just gained her freedom, and didn't want to die so soon into it. Just as she was lifting her hands to swat his away and scream at him to stop he pulled back. At the same instant she heard a 'CLICK' fill the room.

Six stared down at the collar in his hands, and turned it over curiously. It hadn't been that hard to disable, he had simply toyed with the mechanics and released the restraining bolt inside. To think there was a bomb inside this simple device... human beings were amazing creatures, if twisted and horrific monsters deep down inside. Funny how they forgot how they were still animals, only incredibly smart animals.

"...et... et came off..." she said as she lifted her hands to touch her bared neck. "Et... et 'as hot come off since... since I was ten... zey would replace et with a bigger one but..."

"Well. It's off now." Six said as he set the collar down on his bed before being bowled over onto said bed by the woman, who was hugging him again. It knocked the very air out of his lungs and he wheezed as she clung to him as if he were a life preserve, and life itself was an endless ocean. Maybe in a way that was true? He lifted a hand and touched the back of her hair with his non-greasy hand and stroked it awkwardly, having never stroked anyone or anything before other than his ego. "...it's off now." he echoed.

It was later now and here he stood, outside the shared bathroom that everyone in the building used, while an alien washed herself inside. He could hear the hiss of the water, and she was actually singing while in the shower. It was in French, and he didn't know the song, all that he knew was that it was beautiful and sad at the same time. Six made a mental note to find himself a 'Learn French' book somewhere so he could understand her. He then wondered just what he should do with her today, once giving her the instructions of how her new watch/disguise generator worked.

They could go get her some new clothes. But that required money, and his stock pile was beginning to wane. What could he do? He couldn't get a job, he had no social security number, no birth certificate, no diplomas... and she didn't either.

"_Could just rob a bank, for old times sake._" Megamind said.

"No. I'm not doing that." Six said flatly.

"_How about a casino? They have all the money they want, and they're always giving it away to those who win._" insisted the voice in his head.

Six hesitated. A casino? If he got at a table of poker players and put some money down and used his mind reading... he could win big. Even on the roulette table, he could make the ball land on the number and color of his choosing. But was that dishonest? What would Roxanne say if she found out?

_Roxanne._

Should he introduce Lady Doppler to Roxanne? As his mind weighed the pros and cons, the door to the bathroom pulled open and Lady Doppler stepped out, wearing her one piece suit once again while her long white hair was already dry. Just how this was possible is simple; there was a window in the bathroom and opening it, she had drawn out a whole lot of wind to dry her hair out. Already she looked a whole lot better, her face and hair clean, nails no longer dirty, along with the base of her feet that had been almost black when she'd arrived the day before.

"Monsieur Mind?" she asked, making him jump and spin around in surprise. "Sorry!"

"No it's fine; sorry. My mind, when I get thinking..." he trailed off and shrugged before smiling at her faintly. "You look.. very nice."

"Merci." Lady Doppler smiled, and followed after him back into his apartment.

The instructions on the watch were a little complicated for her so in the end Six entered in a basic appearance for her. She took on the appearance of an olive skinned woman with black hair, brown eyes, and maybe a little 'larger' in size than she really was. They lived in a bad neighborhood and last thing Six wanted was a man, crazed by the storm and drink, trying something with her. He'd hate to potentially injure, or kill, anyone again.

"You can't call me Monsieur Mind out there." Six said as he turned his disguise generator on. "It's too risky, and same goes for me to you. Lady Doppler just... no. Someone might over hear, right?"

She nodded as she looked at her new self in the reflection of a scrap piece of metal, since there was no mirror in his room. "So... what can I call you?"

Six paused in thought and tried to think of a name. None were coming to mind. But then he remembered Roxanne, reading that book, and a name sprung out. "Bernard." he said finally, "You can call me Bernard outside."

Lady Doppler nodded again before thinking. "And as for moi... I want to be called Daphne."

"Daphne?" Six asked.

"Oui. I like ze name."

At least she didn't pick Madeline.

And so... Bernard and Daphne stepped outside into the world of Metro City and saw the extent of the damage that Lady Doppler had brought upon the city. There was still water here and there, remains of trees and other debris that had been blown around in the gale force winds, along with shattered glass. Down the road from them two cars had been blown into one another, and it looked incredibly cool and grizzly at the same time.

He whistled. "Wow. This is impressive..."

She held in a laugh, finding that an odd kind of compliment. If he liked this, than he should see her hurricanes. Lady Doppler looked around the city, having never really stopped in a big city for long periods of time. Though it was normally in the dead of night and being instructed to do this, or do that, unless she wanted to get seriously hurt. To see the aftermath though, made her feel a little bad despite the compliment Six had given her.

She had inconvenienced a lot of people, and just glancing at a newspaper stand as they past told them of the tens of thousands in dollars of damage. Some people had been taken to hospital. There had been car crashes... normally she never saw the results like this. It was a striking realization. After a job was done she was knocked out, dragged back to a van and taken back home just so she didn't know _where_ they were in case she staged an escape. Which she had, either way.

Megamind, meanwhile, was basking in the aftermath of the destruction. He had never lived out his dreams of demolition and destruction upon the city. To see so many people put out by this storm, by the power of the woman walking alongside him, made him want to leap back into work. To make his fish some suits, arm them to the gills and work with Lady Doppler to create a plan that would be unleashed not only upon Metro City, but wherever she had come from. They would learn for their insolence, their arrogance at thinking they could control beings that should be worshiped as Gods and not cast down and be shackled the way they had been.

Six forced him into silence, and to the side lines, as they stopped outside a materials shop.

This would be tricky. It had... it had always been Minion who made the outfits, but by definition did that mean he was the one making his clothes? Had he blacked out all those moments, to convince himself of the lie he had been feeding himself? Six did not know, and didn't know if he wanted to know. Minion had always been special, his friend, his confidant and his voice of reason. Ever since he left, and had been lost, Six had felt very lost without him. Now, with Lady Doppler standing besides him, he somehow felt more abandoned than before without Minion's help. How do you talk to girls? How do you act? Are there limits? Lines? Rules? He had no idea.

Funny since, when talking with Roxanne, he didn't feel this nervous. Why was that?

"Mousier M-Bernard?" Daphne asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes." Six replied on auto-pilot. "Come on, let's go find some material."

"You make your clothes?" she asked, looking at him with a curious eye.

"Most clothes don't fit me. It's out of habit, but if you want we could... go to a store?" had he even, ever, stepped foot in a store without the purpose of robbing it blind? He had no memory of doing such a thing.

She shrugged. "I do not know what et ez like to go into a clothing store..."

"Makes two of us." Six said feebly.

The two aliens stood there outside the fabric store for a while before he finally held his head back with confidence, pushed the door open and went inside. She quickly followed, and the door closed behind them.

~*~

"There's something different about you." Celia, gossip columnist and Roxanne's friend, said over coffee that morning at the station's building.

"Excuse me?" Roxanne asked, looking a little offended by such a statement.

"There's something different about you." Celia echoed again, "You're... something."

Roxanne scowled slightly. "That's not a nice thing to say!"

"No it's a good thing, it's a great thing-" Celia cut herself short before her eyes widened. "Have you been getting some?"

It was a good thing Roxanne wasn't drinking her coffee because, if she had, she would have snorted it out of her nose or done a spit take... or worse, both at the same time that would have ended up with her ruining her nice white top she was wearing today. Her face flushed brilliantly, and she did her best to not show how affected she was by the statement. "Celia really."

"You _have_ been getting some, and not just any..." the red haired woman stroked her chin as she studied Roxanne's face. "You've been having deathbed sex!"

"What-deathbed? What are you talking about I have no idea." Roxanne said, flabbergasted by such a phrase.

"Sex that's so great that when you're on your deathbed you'll think of it." Celia explained.

The two stared at each other for a moment before both snorting in amusement at the phrase, and its meaning. Roxanne had to admit, despite Celia's bluntness in situations, she certainly new some things. She waved her hand in an effort to clear the air. "Oh my God, that's horrible!"

"It's true though, admit it. If you can't tell me, who can you tell?" she asked, picking up her coffee and taking a sip.

"If I tell you it'll end up in some column about Channel 8's some kind of sex scandal." Roxanne smirked, picking up her own coffee but not drinking yet. She had learned never to drink in the presence of the woman sat opposite her, unless you wanted it sprayed somewhere.

"I would not." Celia scoffed. "Well. Maybe. But I'd keep names protected."

"Given who it is I think that's impossible-" Roxanne let slip before she realized what she was saying.

Celia stared at Roxanne and quickly, alarmingly quickly, put one and one together. Who was it that Roxanne knew in the public eye? Everyone was aware of what had gone down with Megamind, how M had rescued the stolen woman in a daring act of bravery against the blue mad man who had assaulted the city from the shadows for years. There had been sightings of the two, M and Roxanne, together in places but never in a romantic light... at least, that's how it appeared to most.

So of course, the logical answer was...

"M?" Celia asked in a hushed tone, moving her chair closer. "Really? M?"

Roxanne knew the blush on her face was probably answer enough. "Well. Why not? We're both adults, and we've been a kind of... support group to one another since what happened. I don't know about you but it isn't something _I_could easily walk away from without a second thought..."

"No, no of course not. God, no. I wouldn't know what to do if I was in your situation." Celia said in an understanding way before reaching out and placed her hand on her friends.

"It just sort of... well. Yes. We have." Roxanne finally admitted. "We're being very mature about it, though. I'm not madly in love with him or anything, while he _is_ a nice guy I don't think I could love him."

"Why not?" Celia asked, curious.

"Too many perils maybe? Who's to say another mad man won't take Megamind's place-" she mentally shook her head at herself for talking about Six's persona like that, but she had to in public, "-and if they know I'm that way involved with M, who's to stop them coming after me, or worse even kill me to get to him? And anyway, as nice as he is he can be a little dim about things. I don't want to have a big muscle headed guy as the 'one for me'. No thanks..."

"So you're keeping it quiet and casual?"

"You're turning this into an interview." Roxanne said dryly, smirking.

"In my nature." Celia shrugged with a smile. "So, how many times now?"

"What day is it?" Roxanne asked sarcastically, to which Celia laughed like a hyena. "No, I'm kidding. That, my dear, is our business."

"Well whenever it is, it must be amazing. His stamina must be something." said Celia before taking another drink of her coffee. "Bet he could go all night."

"Could, and has." replied Roxanne curtly, making Celia's eyebrows rise in surprise. "It's. Hm. Nice. I haven't had something like this since... what. College? But like I said. Nothing serious."

"Whatever works. I remember when I had two guys on the side at once." Celia said in a reminiscent kind of way, gazing up at the ceiling. "Then when they found out about one another they ended up fighting over my affections."

"Oh yeah I remember that, one of them threw the other into a fountain." Roxanne snapped her fingers. "Whatever happened?"

"Eh. He got too clingy too fast so I cut him loose and the other turned out to be gay. That, or I turned him gay." Celia said before shrugging. "Whatever, am I right?"

"Indeed." Roxanne said flatly.

~*~

Outside of Metro City, where the suburbs thinned out and green fields full of crops begun to take over the land, five black vans drove along the road. The one up front suddenly pulled over and parked on the side of the road, and the other four followed suite. The drivers side of the first car opened and out stepped a man wearing a grey suit that looked incredibly expensive, and made to built his size since he was a monster-sized man. He was at least eight feet tall, large strong hands, and his hair short back in size.

As he walked along the length of the other vans, the side doors opened and four men from each stepped out along with a driver from each.

(Author's Note: Seeing how these men are French, when they are speaking French, their words will be shown in italic. Non-italic means they're speaking English.)

"_Are you sure of your information, Mr. Barton?_" asked the massive man of a fair haired, fair skinned gentleman who held a laptop in his hands.

"_Yes sir, Mr. Buratto. The storms across America have been travelling in this direction. From the looks of things the city is still recovering._" replied Mr. Barton, turning his lap top to show an overhead map of the area that showed weather patterns, animated by large blotches of color. "_For this time of year this kind of storm is unheard of._"

"_She must be here._" Mr. Buratto said as he lowered his sunglasses and stared at the distant, glistening skyline of Metro City. "_Remind me, Mr. Lloyd, this is where Number Six was located, yes?_" he asked of a dark skinned man who had a gun holster under one of his arms.

"_That is correct, sir. Our American allies located him near here, and he was transferred to their underground facility until his escape and... Well, slaughtering of all who was left._" Mr. Lloyd explained. "_You don't believe he's dead, sir?_" he asked, almost afraid to ask the question.

"_She came here for a reason. He is that reason. The little minx seeks shelter, and he is the only shelter she could go to. If he's here, she will be here. She might still be looking. Our job is simple; locate and apprehend her. If possible, get hold of him too. After all,_" Mr. Buratto slowly lowered his glasses over his eyes. "_Six and Seven belong together, don't they?_"

_To be continued_


	8. Chapter 8

Wayne Scott sat behind the kind of desk that normally intimidated everyone who sat opposite him in his private office. It was huge, deep brown, and had been in the Scott family since the 1800's when his great-great-great grandfather had it made when his fledgling business had made its first $400.00. Yes it was a very finely made desk, ornamental, carved, and pointed in some places to make it obvious that whoever sat behind it was quite important, oh yes indeed. But this morning he was the one feeling a little bit small, in comparison to the man who was sitting on the other side of it.

He was a huge man, at least a head taller than himself, and looked as though he was better off fighting gladiators back in ancient Greece. With him were four men in black suits that contrasted to his grey one.

This was a strange gathering, though. That morning he had awoken to receive an important message awaiting him. Some men from France wanted to meet him at nine sharp. The matter was of great importance it seemed, in regards to his father's affairs, so who was he to refuse them? Yet as soon as these five men had been shown into his office of white marble and gold trimmings, he had felt like he was being examined.

Mr. Buratto, Mr. Barton, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Ports and Mr. Star were their names but it was Mr. Buratto who did all the talking in a very good English voice, so well in fact you couldn't tell he was French until he said a certain word and that melodious twang of French seeped through like water in a sponge that was being squeezed slowly.

"I've never heard of you gentleman before, but you worked closely with my father?" Wayne asked.

"Yes, Mr. Scott." answered Mr. Buratto as his large hands rested on his knees. "He and I were comrades with a common purpose set before us."

"And what was that?"

"A matter that I'm not sure your father let you know, at least before his passing." Mr. Buratto said, glancing at a large portrait of the Mr. and Mrs. Scott that hung on the wall. "Tragic, that."

"Yes." Wayne answered the statement stiffly. It wasn't a topic he took great joy in discussing, the death of his parents, and this too felt like an interrogation to see if he was at the same meddle as his father was.

"You're aware of why your father died, yes? The group behind it?" Mr. Buratto asked.

"Of course I do." Wayne replied testily. "What this has to do with your business here I do not know, so please enlighten me."

"Hm. Your father was involved deeply in the research of medical advancement. This you know. He owned many chains throughout the world that helped pharmaceutical benefits advance in leaps and bounds. It's thanks to your father's contributions that many of our latest medical breakthroughs have happened." Mr. Buratto went on to explain. "Were you aware of one of his facilities were here in the city?"

"My father had many facilities in many cities." Wayne replied. "Are you talking about the one on Baxter Street?"

"No. Not Baxter Street." the large head shook once. "Near the docks."

"There's... no facilities down there. Only old buildings and warehouses." he thought quickly of the place, and he knew it well. It was down there, near the waters, where Megamind had taken Roxanne that first time after his first attack upon the city. "Unless one of them stopped operating?" he asked.

"It stopped, but not by choice." Mr. Buratto said. "You recall the incident some months ago, that Megamind man?"

"How could I forget, how could anyone? He did some damage to the city."

"Don't you wonder where he came from?"

"Are you saying my father was involved in this, in some way?" Wayne asked, feeling as though there was a cracking dam wall behind him and despite all of his strength there was no way in which to stop it from breaking down around him.

Mr. Buratto clasped his hands together, lifted them and pressed two of his fingers to his lips. "His name was Megamind but to everyone who knew him, he was Six. The sixth extraterrestrial found on this planet. He was taken in by the government but given where he had landed, he was in your father's 'care' as you would put it. He had the money, and the location, already set. Six's genetic makeup is unlike any this planet has seen. We were on a medical breakthrough using his cells to bring about something that could, quite possibly, cure Cancer, possibly even AIDS."

Wayne sat there in silence and had to think quickly. Had Megamind said anything about this during their battle? He had spoken of an underground facility but that had been to M, not to Wayne Scott. If he said anything out of line that would reveal the two had been in contact, and that he somehow knew of Megamind's background. Could these men put two and two together that quickly? How strong were they?

And the realization that it was his father, his _father_ who had funded everything that Megamind had gone through. All those doctors were paid by him, all of the research came out of his pocket. The torture, the severing of legs, everything was on the blood of his father. Megamind had spoken of how it was his fault he was taken into the facility as a baby, because he had crashed into his pod and landed somewhere safe while Megamind had landed elsewhere. What would he do, what would he say, if he knew Wayne's own father had a hand in what had happened?

He felt sick, as though he wanted to throw up. He kept it down, kept it covered. "How did he escape, then? How did an alien, Megamind, escape a secured underground facility to attack the city?" Wayne asked, trying to not let his voice shake. What if what Megamind had said was true, some truth to it... maybe he was an alien. He wasn't 'gifted' at all, maybe he like Six had come from outer space too. This was a hard nut to swallow, but suddenly it was beginning to make sense.

Would his father had locked him away, too, if he knew? A slither of him said no, of course not, he was your father and he loved you. A larger piece of him said yes, your father would have done it in a heart beat and you know it. No wonder his mother never wanted him flying around near his father, or showing off. Had she known of the underground facility too, then? Did she know about a blue little boy who was being tested every day, while hers was safe and secure at home?

"That's the mystery. All communication between your father's facility and ours ceased when Six escaped. After that came a string of murders, yes? Six 'cleaning up' after himself, taking out everyone who knew who he was, and who had a hand in the research happening there." Mr. Buratto explained.

_By research you mean torture._ Wayne thought, lifting a hand to stroke his chin. "So... why are you here, now?"

"We believe Six is alive and somewhere in your city." Mr. Buratto said.

Wayne was a brilliant actor, and gave nothing away that he knew this to be true. "That's a strong claim. But why come to me, shouldn't you go to the Mayor?"

"He is our next stop." Mr. Buratto explained, "What we need from you is access to your father's vault #147. There is a box in there that even you do not know the combination to. We know it."

Wayne had never heard of this vault, and he knew everything of his father and mother's estate. Where was it located? Not with the others, but many of them were located all over the planet. Was this one close to home and if so, why hadn't he been informed? Why hadn't he been told any of this by his father? Was it because he was too young? Did his father feel his son didn't deserve to know these things? Not even his Will mentioned any of this. Wayne was feeling as though he was stuck in an earthquake, the ground and foundation beneath him beginning to crumble with every passing second.

"What's in that box will help us get to the bottom of what happened that night when he escaped." finished the Frenchman.

"You've left it a little late coming here seeking answers, haven't you? My father died years ago." Wayne pointed out, despite the distress he was going through inside his mind.

"True, but another reason brought us here. Six is not the only living alien on our planet." Mr. Buratto said this in such a way that chilled Wayne's blood. "There was one, another, that landed in Europe. She has escaped and we believe she has made her way to your city to find him, Six."

"But why?" Wayne asked.

"Protection? Companionship? A physical relationship? Who's to say. She is a very dangerous individual, Mr. Scott. All we know are men are dead on both sides because of these aliens and we intend to get them both. Six's genetics are far too important to the human race to ignore, and Seven's abilities make her a strong ally to have on your side. That storm that your fair city is still recovering from is one of hers. And that's only when she's mildly upset. She could flatten even Metro City in an hour if she wanted to." Mr. Buratto went on to explain. "If Six _is_ alive, and we believe he is, and the two of them meet and join their partnership could bring about massive damage. Possibly even deaths."

Wayne sat there, stunned. So this storm that he had flown around in, barely able to keep himself up, had been the work of an alien? A female alien, at that? What did she look like? Was storm control all she could do? Had she escaped for the same reasons Six had, because of torture? Or was she just a rebel, breaking out and killing for funs sake? Roxanne had spoken of Six as somebody who was still vulnerable, and if this woman got a hold of him and drew out the evil lust for revenge that had plagued his heart for so long...

"And if you need some help to decide on whether to let us into your father's estate, this will help." Mr. Buratto gestured to one of the men besides him who pulled out a blue piece of paper and set it on the table before him.

It was a legal order, telling Wayne to give the Frenchmen any and everything they wanted. It was signed by... "The Vice President..?" he mumbled weakly.

"Friends in high places." replied Mr. Buratto with a self-satisfied smile on his face.

All Wayne knew was that he had to get in contact with Roxanne straight away, and hope she in turn could get hold of Six and warn him what was happening here.

~*~

Two ordinary people sat in an ordinary park with an ordinary bag full of materials and clothes. The young man who wore black leather and looked like he hadn't seen the sun in years, was laying on his back and staring up at the sky. The woman besides him wore a simple red skirt with black top and a matching jacket was sitting up and looking everywhere she could.

Lady Doppler had been in America a long time now, but she had never allowed herself to stop and smell the roses. Her outward appearance was just too striking for some people, what with her long white hair and white eyes. Her travels had always been in the disguise of storm clouds, making it easier to fly but harder to rest. She had to rely on sheltered places, out of sight of people, and it hadn't been easy at all. But here in Metro City she could sit in the middle of the grass besides another alien and neither were in danger of being spotted.

It was so... _liberating._

"How much of me do you know?" asked the man suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

She glanced down at him, then looked back around the park. "Only zat you were 'ere in Metro City, and zat you were powerful. You brought a city to ets knees and made ze hero kneel before you. And zat you escaped ze facility, which 'as been untouchable since."

"That's a lot." Six mumbled.

She turned to look at him, and the expression of her face read of so many questions she wanted to ask, but was too afraid to do so. What if a question brought on a flare of anger from the man who has, thus far, been nothing but nice to her? Chewing at her bottom lip she looked out over the park again as he sat up besides her to take in the sight too.

"...after everything I would sit here and watch the world." Six mumbled quietly. "Just seeing normal people doing the... _normal_ things that the normal types do. How content their lives were. How lucky they all were, and didn't know it." he glanced at her and smirked faintly. "Stupid isn't it?"

"Who, you? Never!" Lady Doppler said, aghast.

"Thanks, but I think I was, back then." Six said in a small, broken kind of way. He lifted a hand, touching his forehead. "He... the other me, he was born because of the anger. Because of the doctors and scientists, always at me, never giving me peace besides sleep."

"I do not like doctors. Or scientists." Lady Doppler whispered, taking a chance and scooted closer to the smaller man.

"I almost got away once, before I really did." Six explained in a hollowed out voice, as if he was curling up within himself and there was another him, not Megamind nor Six, doing the talking for him so he could live through talking about a history he wished never existed. "I knew they were going to kill me because I was beginning to loose my usefulness. One night I got out, and I found Minion's body amongst these other aliens, all of them down there in this facility as if it was a museum. Four of them. They... I _think_ they gave me powers. It was them, or my own manifesting and my mind only made me believe they were ghosts so I wouldn't reject what I now had." he lifted his gaze to the bright blue sky, the thick black storms from the day before were already well and truly gone. It was just like the first morning of his freedom, blue, clear, bright, and beautiful.

"I tried too much, too fast. I ended up falling down an elevator shaft and broke both of my legs. I was in terrible agony, so much I couldn't do anything to defend myself when they got me again. They took Minion from me, all over again before..." Six reached down and gripped both of his legs tightly in his hands. "They removed my legs."

Lady Doppler sat there, staring at him with a look of repulsion and shock clearly etched on her face. "Your legs? But..."

"They kept me awake when they did it. Enough drugs to keep me awake so I could feel everything, there was also a mirror above my legs so I could see them cut them away because they were so shattered and broken. They kept me sedated... heavily sedated... after that, trying to get me to do what they wanted. To make things move, lift things, even kill animals that they brought in. But I wouldn't, I was too mad. Already I was on fire from my anger and it just ate at me for years until I escaped a second time, and this time I made sure nobody would follow me."

She sat there in silence, watching his face. Despite the disguise he wore, she could still see the face she knew to be his. His eyes stared distantly into the past, into a horrific place full of pain, torment, and suffering. She felt a small flare of fear for herself, her own safety, but they shared too much in common didn't they? Why would he lash out at her, if they had a common history?

"They took my only friend." he said quietly, and his shoulders suddenly shook. "They killed him, and then he left me again, and I lost him. He was all I had, my Minion."

"Shhh, shhh, come on, come on..." there were her arms again, something that Six was rapidly beginning to adjust to feeling around him. She pulled him into her, and his head ended up somewhere soft and warm and very unfamiliar. "You made et through, did you not?" Lady Doppler asked as she stroked his back with one of her hands. "You survived. Zat ez sign enough zat you are strong, zat you are determined to live even ef all ze people out here are against you. But I am not. Zat ez something, no?"

He had to nod, despite feeling suddenly so exhausted despite sleeping the night previous on the floor. Was he unraveling, slowly? Megamind now had a voice, he could hear him sometimes at the back of his head, and he even took control of him whenever he got angry enough. He kept trying to remember something, something of great importance but it kept slipping his mind. Had it something to do with himself? Minion? Roxanne? He didn't know, and it infuriated him and made him want to scream and stomp his foot.

Then again, many things made him want to do that lately.

One of them was the reasons behind why this woman was in his life now. Her memories flashed in his mind again, and he saw what she had been through. The indignity of it, the assaults, how they had treated her. Free, but chained down in more ways than one. He wanted to find those people, he wanted to-something suddenly flashed in his mind and he pulled away from her as if her touch was fire hot.

"Did you kill them?" he asked suddenly.

"Pardon?" Lady Doppler blinked in alarm.

"Did you kill them all, when you escaped? I know you used a tornado to cover your tracks but... but did you kill them? Everyone?" Six was suddenly grabbing her shoulders. "Please tell me you did. You had to."

She looked scared, frightened, by the madness in his voice and in his eyes. He switched emotions so fast it made her feel dizzy. This was what she had been afraid of, but he wasn't angry at _her_, no, he wasn't. What he was asking of her... who asked such things of somebody?

"N-no... I... I couldn't. I cannot kill people..." she admitted, "Even after what zey did to me, I... I can not..."

Six looked at her, before something inside him finally thawed, and softened. "...I know. I'm sorry." he glanced around suddenly, before getting to his feet and took her hands into his. "We need to get inside."

"Inside?" she asked, getting to her feet.

"They would have followed you. If I know the brains of obsessed men, they would be checking in on every major storm in America and Europe now looking for you. That might mean they could be here, soon, if not now." he explained as he grabbed the shopping bag. He felt the hand still in his tighten considerably. "I need to get things ready, I need to-"

"Do not leave me alone." she whispered desperately, gripping his hand. "Please, please-"

He looked at her hands gripping at his own for a moment, before looking up at her. "It's all right. I know somebody. I. I have one friend here. She'll be able to help us." Six explained quickly. He needed defenses. He needed to give his fish bodies, translators, means to defend themselves and him as well as Lady Doppler. He needed a bigger place. Somewhere hidden, out of place that nobody would know about and wouldn't ever go near- one such place blossomed in his mind like a horrible ugly flower of white corridors, dead bodies, and torment. He pushed the place from his mind as fast as he could; not even in his most desperate hour would he seek shelter where he grew up.

"Are you sure?" Lady Doppler asked quietly as they made their way from the park quickly but not too fast so to attract attention. "Do you trust her?"

He looked at Lady Doppler for a long moment, but she never got a verbal answer. Six only tugged at her hand, and led her from the park.

~*~

Roxanne sat in her apartment, holding her house phone to her ear as she sat on the couch. While she listened to the person on the phone, her poor lunch lay long forgotten on the table in front of her. She didn't look happy at all, no; in fact she looked incredibly angry.

"How dare you-" she started then stopped, and gasped in surprise. "If you come around here you better bet you have the rights to, buddy, because I don't throw my door open to just anybody! Yeah, you better!" Roxanne slammed the phone down on the receiver and groaned, before putting her eyes to her hands.

Mr. Lloyd had called out of the blue asking questions without even introducing himself first. He asked about Megamind, about their interactions, what he had said and done. Roxanne, put off by it all, had told him she never conducted such personal information over a telephone. Then he had threatened to come around to _further_ the investigation and the way he had said that word to her had sent chills up her spine. Something was happening, wasn't it? Why would there be somebody calling up, now, over Megamind?

The answer came in the form of somebody knocking at the window.

Roxanne spun and saw M hovering there, looking gravely worried. She hurried to the door and opened it, and he flew in, shutting the glass door behind him. "Oh thank God I got here first." he said in a hushed tone.

"What's happening?" Roxanne asked while he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. "Look I just had the strangest call-and what do you mean thank god you got here first? What's going on?"

"I just got news there's a group of French men here in Metro City seeking out the source behind the storm a few days ago." M explained as he stopped flying and landed on the floor.

"The source?"

"It wasn't a natural storm; it was caused by a woman. An _alien_ woman. They believe she's come here to Metro City seeking out Megamind-I mean Six for protection." M explained as quickly as he could. "Quickly, Roxanne, did Six mention anything to you the last you saw him about a woman?" he asked as he walked towards her.

This was a lot to take in suddenly, the fact that there were men seeking out Six, that the storm was made by an alien, a _female_ one at that, and trying to remember if Six had mentioned a woman. "N-no he didn't. Last I saw him was the day before the storm, I haven't heard from him since..."

"Then maybe she's found him." M said as he frowned and looked around her apartment before remembering something and looked own at her. "Wait, they called you?"

"Yes, threatened with coming here to ask me questions..." Roxanne trailed off and the two of them looked through to her bedroom where all the information on Megamind's treatment was kept, along with Minion's body. "Oh my God." she said, putting her hands to her face. "What if they-they'll find everything, what would they do with the information, what would they-"

"What would they do to _you_?" M asked, his arms wrapping around her gently, one hand to her back and the other to her hair. "We have to get rid of this information, before they find it."

"B-but he gave them to me." Roxanne replied hollowly as her arms wrapped around his shoulders and rested her forehead against his chest. "I think he believed I could get the information out there, what he had been through had happened so his attack had a purpose, a point..."

"Well this information could get you locked away in a place where even I couldn't get to you." M said gravely. "So it'd be best if I took it, and put it where I can take you if you need it."

Roxanne didn't know if she liked that idea. Six had given _her_ this information, and it had been _her_ to find Minion's body in the water that cold day... what would he think if he knew she had just handed it over? Then again her safety might be in jeopardy. He wouldn't want her in danger would he? "Crap." Roxanne swore, she _still_ hadn't shown him Minion. He just hadn't been around since that day and he didn't have a phone at all, so she really had no idea when she would see him next.

That's when there came a banging at the door, and the two of them froze.

_To be continued_


	9. Chapter 9

Roxanne wasn't sure if she should go to open the door or not. If it was somebody who worked for Mr. Buratto, chances were they knew she was home because she had just hung up on one of them. If it was somebody else, how did they get past Carlos downstairs? She glanced up at M, who was looking at the door as if he was trying to see through it. Did he have x-ray vision? She didn't know half of what powers he had, just like he did. Even after three months he was still learning everything his body could do, and it came at a surprise most days.

"Stay within ear shot." she whispered to him and he nodded, before letting her go and flew back out the way he had came in but hovered up above the door.

She took a breath and was just about to open the door when the banging came again. Roxanne paused to peer through the peep hole but all she saw was a close up of a brilliant green eye staring into it. There was no point in wondering who it was; only one person alive had eyes like that. She was just about to open the door when she remembered; Minion was in her bedroom. He could be in plain sight if he stood in a certain spot in the apartment.

_Oh God._

With that she opened the door, smiling first then stopped.

There was a woman standing behind Six, somebody she didn't know. She was dressed casually, a skirt, top, and orange jacket. Her black hair was tied into a plait and she looked slightly tanned. Roxanne looked at the woman for a second before looking to the human disguise of Six, smiling in greeting. "Hey...! What're... are you all right?" she asked, glancing at the woman. Did she work for Mr. Buratto and had just happened to be here when Six arrived?

"No." he replied honestly before walking in past her before hurrying back, grasped the woman's wrist and tugged her in after him.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Roxanne asked as she shut the door behind the two. "Who, who is this?" she asked, gesturing to the woman, before very slowly moving herself so she would be standing in front of her bedroom door. Maybe she could just walk and shut the door? He wouldn't question her actions in her own apartment surely.

"I think we're being followed." he said bluntly. "This is... this is a friend." Six said, looking to the woman besides him. "She only arrived here a few days ago."

"'ow do you know you can trust her?" the woman whispered as quietly as she could to Six, but Roxanne still overheard.

Roxanne frowned, before boldly going and shutting her bedroom door with a snap. "Who's following you?" she asked, ignoring the stab at her. Going by what she was hiding in her room and who was hanging around outside, she began to doubt herself a little. Would a real friend hide this kind of thing from another? This might go south very fast.

"French men." Six said bluntly again, and alarm bells went on in Roxanne, and M's head.

"_He knows._" thought M. "_How does he know? Who's with him?_"

"They might have followed her." Six gestured to the woman.

"Why?" Roxanne asked, looking at the woman with a judgmental look. The woman frowned at her, but made no move to answer.

"...because she's like me." the blue alien said before playing with a watch on his wrist and the disguise melted away revealing himself. He reached over and grasped the other womans wrist and did the same thing to her watch and Roxanne watched, transfixed, as the brunette suddenly became a very tall, very beautiful woman with white eyes and hair. Even with her clothes being a bit of a mess, the woman was stunning. "She ran away, and they followed her. Do you know anything about French men being in town?" he asked, "You're a reporter. Shouldn't you know about something like this?"

"Not... not if it's a cover up deal." Roxanne said slowly as the white haired woman continued to look at her, as if looking into her very soul. "If she's like you... then they wouldn't be talking about it on the TV. It would be quiet."

"Of course. Yes. That makes sense." Six mumbled as he stroked his beard in thought, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Damn."

"They called me." Roxanne said finally.

"What?" both Six, and Lady Doppler, asked at the same time.

"When?" Six added desperately.

"Uh. Just now, before you arrived. It's because they think she's arrived looking for you, and since I was one of the last people to be seen with you they think I know something about you that nobody else does. They... they think you're alive, Six. I wouldn't be surprised if they're after you, too." Roxanne admitted, managing to not let slip that it was M who had told her all of this because he was Scott Wayne. All the while she hoped, prayed, that Six wouldn't read her mind right now. There was too much up in the air, it was far too dangerous.

Six stood there, before he suddenly growled and stormed from the room and out onto the balcony that M had just previously been hovering over. The hero dived under and hung there as he heard Six stomp out onto the balcony. Despite being in board daylight he made no attempt to turn his disguise back on.

"Wasn't I careful? I was careful. I haven't robbed anyone. I only killed a few. That was by accident. They think I'm alive. They didn't buy the death. Of course they didn't. Now she's brought them here. They want us. God. No, no..." Megamind muttered darkly, aloud, while Six continued to move the body around nervously, fingers twitching and grasping at his chest as his lungs began to sting.

"What-" Roxanne started but the tall woman rushed past her and grabbed Six outside, and actually managed to haul him back inside, shutting the doors behind her.

"Monsieur Mind you cannot be seen! Zey will find us even quicker!" she finally said, her French accent dripping off her words like custard on a cake, thick and rich. Roxanne watched as the woman knelt down in front of Six, hands to his shoulders, and felt a sudden flash of jealousy. _Where had that come from?_ "Calm down and think," she said soothingly. "Et ez no good to be angry, oui?" she asked.

Six looked at her, through her, around her, then to Roxanne, and then back to the lady.

"...we need to find a safer place." he finally said quietly. "I... there's so much to be done."

"I'm sorry but what is your name?" Roxanne finally asked. "You're the one they're after, aren't you?" she walked up to the two and focused on the woman with white hair that was so long it touched the ground while she knelt before Six.

Lady Doppler looked up at the brunette and frowned slightly. She stood to her full height, towering somewhat over Roxanne, and put her hand to her chest. "I am Lady Doppler. And oui, I am ze one zat zey are after."

"You caused the storm." Roxanne observed keenly.

"Oui. Et was my only way to travel ze country and not be seen. I know, I know et was wrong but. I 'ad no other way. I 'ave no money, no other clothes, nowhere safe to be. Except with him." Lady Doppler looked down at Six, who looked as though he was only looking at himself, and thinking fast.

Roxanne frowned to herself, before putting a hand to her mouth. "Hm." she said.

"What?" Lady Doppler asked, looking at her.

"Huh?" Roxanne asked.

"You look like you want to say something." Lady Doppler commented, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"No, I don't. Well. I do, but..." Roxanne started then saw the way Six was turning his gaze to her. "No, no. Please don't. That's invasion of privacy, okay?" she asked.

Six blinked; startled that she would use that tone of voice with him. It was the kind of voice you expect to hear mothers to give children who were about to do something naughty, and were being instructed on _not_ doing the naughty thing less something horrible happen. He looked away from her, then back. "Sorry." he said quietly, and the guilt came crashing down on Roxanne like an avalanche.

"Look it's just. You can't read people's minds like that, it's an invasion of privacy. It's rude, and you don't want to be rude do you?" Roxanne asked.

"Et ez not rude ef ze person ez trying to hide something." Lady Doppler said quickly. "Et might save a lot of trouble, and to learn who ez your friend and who ez not."

"Are you trying to say I'm not his friend?" Roxanne turned to look at Lady Doppler, eyes narrowing now.

"I am just saying what ez true." Lady Doppler replied casually before pushing some white hair behind her ear. "People lie. Zere ez no second way to see it. I 'ave been lied to a few times, and et hurts. Et always does. I don't... I don't want him to hurt more zan he already has been."

Roxanne wanted to say 'neither do I' but couldn't. The guilt was suffocating her now, and it was getting almost impossible to ignore. She put her hands to her head. "Six." she said finally. "I'm sorry but. You can't keep your things here anymore."

Six looked taken aback by the statement. "What, why?"

"Because they'll be coming here." Roxanne said as she walked up to him, placing a hand to his shoulder as she spoke. "And if they find me with all this information they could take me away for questioning. I don't know how these... French men operate but I don't like what I heard over the phone. If they come up here and find everything I don't know what would happen."

"I..." Six started, but stopped, and sighed and pressed a hand to his face. "That makes sense."

"I found Minion." Roxanne had said it so quickly, and suddenly, it alarmed herself. Where had that suddenly sprung from? No, she didn't have to ask why. She knew. It was the guilt that had been crushing down on her since all those days ago when she had found him, and how Six had tumbled back into her life like a free bird who was nice enough to grace her with its presence before flying away again.

It was like the world had suddenly taken a deep breath in from shock, and continued to hold it. Six had been staring ahead vacantly, but now his eyes were awake, wide, and looking at her pointedly. "What?" he asked quietly, in shock.

"You remember... the... the news, they were trying to find your fish?" Roxanne asked.

"Yes." Six replied.

"I was down at the docks and... this... ball just floated by and I knew who it was and what he meant and..."

"How long?" Six asked, "How long has it been since then?"

She couldn't answer him.

"Was he here when I was here?" he asked.

"Monsieur Mind, who ez... Mignon?" Lady Doppler asked.

"My friend they killed. My friend they took from me. My friend who I thought I lost has been here all this time and you _never told me?_" Six asked, the anger beginning to boil up in his words as he spoke. "Why? Roxanne, why didn't you tell me?" the anger fell away to pain, a child of a voice who had been deceived, and lied to.

"I didn't know how; you were so scared when you were here!" Roxanne replied, voice shaking. "Then you vanished and I have no way of contacting you, I don't even know where you live! I want to help you, Six, I'll do anything I can for you, you know that!"

"Including hiding something from me?" Six asked, aghast.

"Sometimes you have to!" Roxanne said back.

"Where is he?" Six asked the question he wanted to ask since learning this truth. "_Where?_" he said desperately.

Roxanne stood there before slowly making her way to her bedroom. She vanished inside for a moment before returning, a blanket covering Minion. "He's... been good company." she admitted as she moved to Six and slowly crouched before him. "But he belongs with you."

Six held his hands out like a little boy awaiting a gift from Santa, and she handed him the ball. He slowly removed the blanket and held back a sob of both joy and sorrow, at seeing the small fish inside the glass ball. Lady Doppler stared, amazed, at the dead fish from her place sitting besides Six on the floor where he had ended up being after being pulled back inside. So this was Minion? A fish? A fish was his only friend in the entire world, and he was dead. Long since dead, if the appearance of him was any indicator.

Some of his scales had fallen free from his body. The large fake eyes looked even more fake than normal, and a few of his teeth had fallen out. He smelt of strong deadly chemicals like formaldehyde, and it was disgusting. But the way Six was holding the ball, smoothing his hand over the surface, made it seem as though it was the most precious thing in the world.

To him, it was.

Six was glad he had been sitting, or else he would have fallen to his knees at the sight of his friend. Four months had felt like an eternity without Minion there. Even if it had been revealed his 'voice' had been his own all those years and that the robot body had moved of his own violation and not a complex machine worked by a spiritual fish. This was the second connection to his parents, the only once organic one. He smoothed over the ball again, and again, as if petting a cat.

"I'm going to take care of you, now." he mumbled to the ball before he suddenly seemed to wake up, and opened his eyes. They were wet, and he didn't understand why. The alien got to his feet and was about to speak when the door to the balcony suddenly swung open and M came flying into the room.

Lady Doppler screamed upon seeing him and backed away. Six stared at him, eyes wide and Roxanne groaned and pressed her hands to her face.

"They're here." M said. "They just pulled up."

Nobody had to ask who he meant. Lady Doppler was suddenly on the floor, back pressed up against the wall, and hands over her face as she shook her head, and began rocking back and forth. "N-non, non..." she was saying, again and again. She had come so far, too far, to be taken back now. What could she do? She couldn't fly out of here, they would spot her. It was board daylight outside and if she made any clouds appear they would know she was here. She suddenly felt a hand to her back and she looked up through her fingers to see Six sitting besides her, Minion tucked under his other arm.

"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly.

"W-what?" she replied quietly.

"Do you trust me?" Six asked again.

"Oui..." Lady Doppler replied softly.

"Shut your eyes." he said, and she did. Then everything went black.

Six stood up and shoved the small blue cube into his jacket's pocket before rushing into Roxanne's bedroom where all the boxes were held. He looked at M who was hovering there in the room, and despite the anger that Megamind was feeling towards the man he pushed past it, kept the angry part of him off to the side, and spoke.

"You'll have to carry me out of here." he said before turning his De-Gun on the room and began firing at the books, boxes, and reports. "I'll ask you too now, why were you outside?" Six asked, looking over his shoulder at the man. "I knew you were out there. I can sense you even when I don't want to."

"...I told Roxanne about the French men before." M said honestly, "And I was sure you wouldn't want to see me."

"You're right. I didn't." Six said stiffly as he looked back at the room, pointing to the blue cubes. "Grab them and carry them for me. We're both flying out of here. Roxanne, you stay, answer their questions. I'll take the cubes off of M once I'm home and he can race back here to listen in and help if needed. Does that make sense?" the blue alien asked as M began collecting the blue cubes, feeling like he was picking up toys after a messy child.

"Yes, yes..." Roxanne replied as she watched Six cube all of the paperwork he had given her. It was heart breaking to see it go, but maybe it was for the best either way that she no longer held it. There were too many chances for somebody to come across them, here in her room, and if they ended up in the wrong hands Six would be in serious danger and she didn't want him to be in danger like that on account of her.

There was knocking at the door just as Six picked up the last cube before he and M rushed out the window and Roxanne shut the door behind them before going to the front door, brushing hands through her hair. "Coming!" she said, and pulled the door open.

~*~

"So is there anything else I'm not aware of?" Six asked as he and M flew through the city in what M thought to be the strangest thing that he could ever do.

Six had quickly scanned Roxanne before he had rushed out the door so, in M's arms, wasn't Six but Roxanne. The woman had Six's voice though, and held an armful of blue cubes, as well as a round ball with a Fish inside piled on top of them all. M found this to be the most bizarre thing he had ever done, and he had done a fair few things. Still, if people saw M carrying Roxanne through the skies they'd think nothing of it. Megamind, on the other hand...

"Nothing you're better off not knowing about." M replied calmly. "Some things are best left unknown, aren't they?" he asked.

"Hm." Six mumbled as he ran a hand absently over the ball of Minion.

"She didn't do it to hurt you." M said quietly as Six pointed the direction in which to go. "Honestly, she felt bad."

"Hm." Six mumbled again.

"So are you going to run?" M asked as Six pointed to a building that looked like it had seen better days. "You and Lady Doppler?"

"What we do is none of your business, M. You stick to worrying over the city's safety and Roxanne. It's what you do best." Six snapped as he hovered out of his hands and flew into a shattered window that still remained broken. He dumped the blue cubes onto the bed, and placed Minion carefully onto his pillow. "Now go on." he said, twisting the watch and the woman was soon replaced by his blue skinned self. "Roxanne might need you. At least one of us can watch out for her."

M looked a Six carefully for a moment while he put a hand to the window frame. "You love her, don't you?" he asked carefully.

Six seemed to freeze, and once again the world held in its breath at a question being posed that was probably best left unanswered. The alien slowly turned his head and looked at M, and seemed to understand something that he hadn't known minutes ago... and this was without the aid of reading any minds, or intruding on others privacy. Something deep within him unthawed.

"Loved. Past tense." Six answered in such a way that it sounded as though it was something M had always known, and was only now remembering. "She's as obtainable to me as the moon is. She's too far from me, but she'll always be beautiful to me. Nothing will change that. But tell her that and I'll kill you. I mean it." he said, lifting a hand and pointing it at M.

"I can believe it." M said before moving back out the window and turned back to look at Six, before quickly taking off.

Six watched him go before absently plucking the blue cube from his jacket pocket and looked at it. He suddenly gave it a quick kiss before shoving it under the faucet of his sink and turned on the water. Seconds later Lady Doppler was sitting in his sink, eyes wide, and obviously unstable or unsure of where she was. She yelped and fell out of the sink, and landed with a thump on the floor.

She screamed again, in French, but his hands were on her wrists and he was soon face to face with her. "I'm here. I'm here." he said quietly, "It's okay. It's okay. They don't know you're here. We're safe for now. It's okay. It's okay."

Lady Doppler continued to breath hard, eyes wide with fright and terror, until she took in the surroundings of the room. How the small, cramp space had begun to feel like a home, safe, despite the state of it, she didn't truly want to understand. But she looked back at Six and smiled shakily, and he released his hold on her wrists. "S-sorry..." she whispered, "Just... just ze fact zat zey were... so close to us…"

"I understand." Six said, sitting down besides her against the wall. "Believe me. I understand."

Where had these words come from, the ones forming in his mouth now? Days ago he had been a wreck, a ship lost on a sea that didn't care for him at all. Roxanne had been a passing island, a refuge but now it felt as though that there was not where he belonged. This woman, this whirlwind that had blown into his world, had suddenly given him an anchor. No longer was he adrift without hope, he had somebody to hold onto, somebody who was almost like... himself, but from years ago, before the anger and malice had eaten away at him. She made him feel stronger; she made him feel as though he had a reason for being and a reason to be bold and not just angry.

It scared him, a little. He feared failure, he feared messing up because now it not only affected him, but her too. Letting her down, now, felt like an option he could never, ever pick.

"...what are we going to do, Monsieur Mind?" she asked quietly, after a moment, pulling him out of his thoughts and back to the real world.

The blue alien looked at his poor fish on his bed, then to his live ones swimming in their tank. Outside the world ticked by, the sky was a brilliant blue, and nobody knew the extent of the men from France or how far they could reach, or go. They couldn't stay here; he needed room to work. He had so much to do, for a plan that was beginning to form in his head. To be honest, he didn't like the look of it, but if that was what he had to do in order to win freedom for not only himself but the woman sitting besides him, then it's what he'd have to do no matter how far it took him into himself.

His arm moving of its own violation and wrapped around her shoulders and he felt her lean into him, her head soon resting on his shoulder.

"Whatever it takes." Six finally answered her in the fading light of the evening sun.

_To be continued_


	10. Chapter 10

Golden brown eyes watched the distant horizon that was slowly bleeding from a clear white sky to a grey, almost black color. The storm clouds, growing slowly and forever approaching, were gaining speed with every passing day. It was an unnerving sight to behold since, once upon a time; this area that was his own was pure white. The clouds were a stain, a blemish, a disease that was a threat as well as a warning as to what was to come.

Six watched Minion as he hovered there above the ground, watching the clouds.

"Minion?" he asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Oh Sir! I didn't know you were there!" Minion spun around and smiled at the alien, "Gave me a scare you did."

"Sorry." Six replied as he walked up to the fish and stood there, and put his fingers together. "Uh. Minion, I got you back."

"You did? You did!" the fish fluttered his fins happily. "Oh wonderful Sir, I'm glad."

Six watched his friend, and he suddenly looked very, very sad. Minion easily saw this, and drifted closer. "Sir? What's wrong?"

"I. I think I have to..." he tried to speak, he really did, but his throat squeezed and it was hard to get the words out. His heart burned, his stomach churned, and he felt sick and hot. "You-you deserve better then what you have."

"Deserve better?" Minion asked, confused.

"You shouldn't... Shouldn't be stuck in a ball forever like this. I... you deserve a funeral. You never got one. You're always on display. I don't want you to stay that way forever. I... do you want to be buried? Cremated? I don't. I don't know..."

The fish looked surprised by these kinds of questions, but then smiled and moved closer, and nuzzled affectionately against the blue alien's hand until Six finally petted his scaled body.

"Oh Sir... that is..." he shut his eyes and shook his body before pulling back and peered up at his friend, his charge, his boss. "To be honest... I don't want my body on display either. If you could cremate me, and put my ashes into something that you'll always keep on you that will be fine. I don't want to be scattered, or buried in the ground and left behind. I. I don't like being alone."

"I don't either." Six admitted before lifting his gaze at the black clouds that weren't there the last time he was here. "Minion what... what is that?" he asked, pointing at the black mass.

"The future, Sir." Minion replied gravely as he turned to look at it. "The storm is going to test you."

"I'm not going to like it, am I Minion?" Six asked quietly.

"No, Sir. You're not. But you won't be alone."

Six's eyes opened and he was in a room he didn't recognize. He sat up in the bed and was startled to find a person in the bed with him, curled slightly around him with her head on the pillow. Lady Doppler was still fast asleep, and Six stared at her blankly for a while before looking around to try and remember where they were.

It all came rushing back. He had grabbed all the money he could and they had left the apartment behind. He had recalled an old cinema that was no longer being used, and due to companies arguing back and forth it had remained unused for years now and would be for years to come. The door ways were boarded up with planks of wood, and it had tall chain link fences surrounding it to keep people out, but that didn't stop tags being sprayed against the wooden panels... or having some stones thrown at high windows. He and Lady Doppler had brought his fish here, had flown in through a window and made themselves comfortable on what he could only assume had once been a homeless mans bed.

They had cleaned it up, flipped it over, and in their investigations they had found an old abandoned piano sitting amongst old drapes and cardboard cut outs that advertised the latest movies. A testament to just how old the cinema was showed, since the posters and memorabilia were from at least twenty years ago. Neither alien knew of the movies, but both were pleased to find an old projector as well as rolls of film. Maybe, one day, they could watch old movies in here once he connects his binkey to the power box.

Memories of his first night out of the facility crashed around him, and Six couldn't help but compare it to the old abandoned observatory he had called home for so long. It hadn't meant to be a home, really. It was a safe haven, but then the anger and hatred combined with his lust for revenge and Megamind had gotten his footing right in that observatory. Just how much it had transformed from a building of science into a building of hatred. Even with the world boring down on the two of them, Six refused to allow the same thing to happen here.

He climbed out of the bed, pulling the blanket they had brought over the white haired woman before staggering over to his fish who stared up at him. Six knelt down before them, and placed his hand to the glass. One with blue eyes came closer to the glass and bumped against it, where his hand was, before swimming away.

"I made you guys for a purpose once." he said quietly, so not to wake the sleeping woman. "I know I... I was angry then. It wasn't me. I need you for something else now. I'm going to make you bodies, ways to talk, but you won't be here to destroy anymore. You're here to protect. Do you understand me?"

The fish stared at him for a moment, before they began to nod. Even if this one before them didn't seem like their old master, it _was_ him, deep down. They knew that, and they had to accept that. The part of Minion that was in each and everyone of them spoke loudly of loyalty, of unflinching, unyielding loyalty that was placed upon them by two beings they themselves never met, or would ever know. They were supposed to look after him, so that's what they were going to do.

"Thank you." he mumbled before turning his head and saw Minion sitting on what he had brought from his old apartment. Getting to his feet he walked over to the ball and picked it up, looking down at the fish that floated inside.

Deep within him something stirred, and he nodded.

"You'll never be alone." Six said to the fish before setting him back down and went about preparing for a day full of busy activities.

~*~

"It was like being interrogated by the Spanish inquisition!" Roxanne exclaimed, holding her cup of tea. "My God, they wanted to know where I was, what I was doing, what I saw, what he said... everything! Even our own cops weren't so direct about things."

M, sitting next to her on the couch, nodded. "Yes. I heard. I'm proud of you, the way you handled yourself. Though I think you pushed it when you threw your drink at that Mr. Lloyd guy when he said they'd be searching the apartment."

"He was just so rude." she replied, frowning. "I wanted to punch him in the face."

"It's a good thing Six cleared everything out when he did." M commented, looking down at his coffee. "How he could keep a level head and think of all those things while not freaking out about Minion and me..."

"He's brilliant." Roxanne said quietly. "He has no idea."

M observed her a while, before putting his mug down. "What do you think he's going to do, though? Now that he knows that he's being pursued?"

"If it was just him, Megamind," she said, "He could just reveal himself all over again and fly at them from all sides at once and destroy them. But he's got that ... woman with him now, I don't know. What do you think about her?"

"She seemed fond of him." M replied honestly. "It seems like she depends on him."

"She's using him." Roxanne frowned slightly. "Because he's powerful, she knows it, so she's hiding behind him and hiding from those she brought to him because of her actions." her eyes widened. "What if she's in cahoots with Mr. Buratto? What if she's in on the whole thing, just making him think she's on his side when in reality-"

"You're too paranoid, Roxanne." M reached out and touched her shoulder, trying to calm her. "I think she's just a lost, scared person. Megamind seems fond of her, and if anything she's grounding him a little. For that, I think we should be grateful. If not for her, he could be destroying people right now."

"Without her there wouldn't BE anyone to destroy." Roxanne replied flatly.

M looked at Roxanne, before suddenly grinning. "I think you're jealous."

"What?" Roxanne asked, eyes widening. "W-why would I be jealous?"

"You're fond of him. Don't deny it, you're like... I don't know. A little mothering towards him, I saw the way you look when you talk about him. You feel some kind of responsibility for him, now suddenly there's this new woman you know nothing of in his life and you don't like it."

"...it's been a week, and he hasn't contacted us!" Roxanne finally blurted. "I don't know where he is, what he's doing, if he's safe or if those guys have caught him!"

"Well. From what I've heard there's been nothing at the police station over things being stolen, or property damage. Whatever it is they're doing, they're doing it quietly." M admitted with a smile before wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close, rubbing her shoulder gently. "You shouldn't worry too much. If he needed help he knows where you are."

"But after what happened... what if he can't trust me anymore?" Roxanne asked quietly, lowering her eyes to look at her hands. "What if he can't face me anymore?"

"I don't think Six is like that at all." M said just as softly, "Deep down he knows you did what you thought was right. But now he's got to... well. Handle the situation."

"Can't you go check on him?" she asked, lifting her gaze to look at him.

"He isn't where I dropped him off. They moved, probably so they wouldn't be found." M explained. "And before you ask, now, I don't know any way I can find them."

He still had so many untapped powers he hadn't found yet. After an entire life spent repressing what he had to offer, suddenly putting them to use revealed to him all kinds of things he could do. But still that left him wondering what else he could do. He had strength, speed, the usual things but just how strong could he become? How fast could he go? How good were his eyes if he really concentrated on something? That left him room to grow, mature, become a better person. If that meant not communicating his every move, then so be it.

M suddenly had the strange feeling as if he and Roxanne were suddenly parents, and Six was their child and Lady Doppler was a new 'friend' that the mother didn't like.

"I'm just... worried. I can't help it." Roxanne said quietly.

"Maybe you should try putting a notice out that you want him to get in contact with you? Something only he'd understand, and pick up on. You've got access to all this media, why not put it to your advantage?" M asked.

Roxanne sat up suddenly, eyes wide. "Why haven't I thought of that?" she asked quietly.

"Because you've been to worked up with worry?" M asked as he pulled her in for a small embrace and kissed her forehead. "Your heart is as big as the ocean, inside a bigger ocean." he teased.

"Oh man, no, no. That's horrible." she laughed, a look of relief crossing her face, since she needed the change of tone. He was right though, she had been worrying too much. It reflected on her face, her skin had become a little dry and if not for her make up artist at work everyone in Metro City would see what kind of nervous wreck she was becoming. "That's just you though, isn't it? Saving me even from myself."

"I do what I can." M replied smugly.

Roxanne laughed again, grasped the back of his head, and pulled him down to kiss him.

~*~

Lady Doppler was laid on the floor, supporting her chin in her hands while her legs kicked idly. This was the position she took up when Six was working on something because, truly, he was a wonder to behold when he was in the middle of creating something. Be it a translator port for his fish, the mechanical bodies that would house them, or even simple things like sewing, the blue man would have such a look of concentration and dedication on his face she found it all but impossible to ignore him.

She was now wearing a new outfit she had helped him design based on the materials they had picked up from that store a few weeks ago. It was layers of orange, blue, and white. Just the other day they had gone out into a shoe store to find her some nice boots and she had selected a lovely white pair that now were set on her feet. Her long hair was still incredibly long, and white, and spread out to her side like a carpet.

Looking at herself in the mirror this morning she could hardly believe the transformation she had undertaken in such a short amount of time, and all thanks to the blue man who was working on a hand/claw for one of his fish.

"Do you think zat zey are still in ze city, Monsieur Mind?" she asked.

"And give up a catch like you? I doubt it." Six replied as he touched a live wire to the electronics of the hand making it twitch and clench in on itself before easing once the wire was removed.

"You are not zat bad of a catch either, Monsieur." she added with a smile.

"Well naturally." Six smirked at her. "I'm amazing."

She couldn't agree more, but could hardly bring herself to say such a thing. She rested her chin on her arms now that she had folded them, and continued to watch him.

"Are you doing your practices?" he asked suddenly.

"..." she didn't answer.

"Lady Doppler," Six set down the hand and looked at her. "It's important for you to realize the extent of your abilities."

"But inside? Et ez impossible." she said quietly. "I need to see ze sky in order to create ze wind and clouds."

"No you don't." he reached over and tapped his finger to her forehead. "You've got all this power tucked away in here. Wind is all around us, all the time. It doesn't have to be a massive cloud, or a massive gust of wind. Just start small. Do what you know. Remember, keep your eyes shut. If they're shut, your brain could believe you're outside." Six said.

"Zat ez cheating! Et ez a trick!" Lady Doppler gasped.

"Life's a trick." Six replied as he picked up his claw. "The longer you live, the more you know how to trick it."

"...are ze bodies almost finished?" she asked.

"Almost. It's basic standard control tests now. To make sure things swing the way that they're meant to." Six explained as he tested the movements again. "They've all got their qualities that will come in handy."

"I like ze one with ze wings." Lady Doppler smiled.

"I know you would." Six said with a smirk.

They fell into silence again as he continued working on the massive bear claw sized hand, before he grabbed some faux fur and began gluing it into some places.

"Monsieur Six?" Lady Doppler spoke again, hating to interrupt him since last time she did that he had glued his fingers together and it had been very hard trying to unglue them.

"Hm?" Six asked as he used his tools to make sure the fur stay stuck fast to the metal.

"Are you going to let me in on what sort of plan zat you 'ave in your head?" Lady Doppler asked. "You do not tell me anything..."

Six looked to her, before setting the paw down and scooted over to her. "It isn't that I don't trust you. It isn't that at all. But if you know your half, and I know mine, if anything happens to either one of us and we're captured we can't give them the whole plan. Remember?" he asked. "Jaws will inform you what you have to do once mine starts."

Jaws being the name of one of the surviving fish. They all had names, picked out by themselves, and were rather quite proud of them. Now, though, the fish were sleeping.

"I know." she mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"Oh don't. You're making me feel like I'm a bad guy all over again." he said, and pouted at her.

"Could I go for a walk?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh no." Six replied immediately. "You know we can't. It's not safe to wander outside, somebody might see. Somebody might ask questions. They might find out."

Lady Doppler groaned and rolled over onto her back and kicked her feet high into the air, and lifted her arms also until they were as straight as her legs. "I know, I know." she sighed, since she knew he was right. Even if the cinema was in a fairly abandoned area there was always the slight chance of somebody seeing something, and seeing a woman hover out of a window from the top most floor of an old abandoned cinema would no doubt raise alarm bells.

"You could practice in here. I wouldn't mind." green eyes turned to look at her, and she could feel them even if she wasn't looking at her. Six had a way of looking at her, this deep, penetrating gaze that made her feel as though he was looking deep within her every time he looked at her. He was watching her, seemingly always, and while once upon a time being permanently watched was an unsettling thing when it was him it felt... safe.

A feeling she hadn't felt much of in her entire life, but was beginning to trust, slowly.

Lady Doppler rolled over onto her front again and looked at him. "Really?" she asked.

"Sure. If you can manipulate weather, you should be able to make yourself hover at least inside." Six said.

"I do not know..." she said quietly.

"Don't doubt yourself." Six said quickly, and sharply, that it surprised her. "Come on." he put the metal paw down and lifted himself up off of the ground first, not even changing the crossed position of his legs as he did. "Sit up straight, and then lift yourself."

Lady Doppler had never trained with somebody who could fly too, so this was definitely new. She sat up as he instructed and took a deep breath.

"Focus on the wind around you. Your breath. Your lungs. Shut your eyes and think of only that." Six instructed her. "Feel the air around you, how it surrounds you, gives you life."

She took another deep breath and shut her eyes and focused on his words, his soft, feathery voice that sounded of long time suffering but also of attempts at finding his footing. She frowned, and concentrated on her breathing... the air around her, and a soft smell of the old decaying cinema that drifted on the wind.

"I do not... I do not think I can..." Lady Doppler said as she began to shake her head.

"Open your eyes."

Naturally she did and let out a yelp, since she was hovering at least five feet off the floor. The surprise shocked the ability out of her and she fell, but he caught her before she landed. Not with his real hands, of course, but she could almost feel his hands holding her as he grabbed onto her with his mind and lowered her to the floor.

"I... did... did you do zat?" she asked shakily, looking at him.

"No." Six replied with a shake of his head as he stretched out his legs and stepped onto the ground to walk over to her. "That was all you." he said with a grin. "I told you, you could do it."

"I... I flew... inside?" Lady Doppler asked herself.

"You did! Lifted straight up like a bottle rocket. Very impressive. So. You know you can do it. You just need to work past the need to keep your eyes shut, and you're golden." Six said before having the wind suddenly knocked out of him since Lady Doppler had literally catapulted herself at him, and her arms were around his shoulders as she held him. The embraces, the hugs, was something he was still adjusting to... but he was much better then he used to be. "Congratulations." he said quietly.

"Merci, Monsieur Mind. You 'ave no idea 'ow much it means to me... zat you are 'elping me like this..." she whispered against his head.

"I keep telling you to just call me Six." he muttered.

She giggled and pulled back, before allowing him to go back to his own work as she focused on hers.

~*~

Mr. Buratto stood outside an abandoned car yard and watched as the men around him ran this way and that, machines whirred loudly as they were operated, and the screech of scraping metal pierced the darkness of the night. For the past week the piles of cars, cubed or otherwise, were being removed. The mask in which they hid behind told those around them that the scrap yard was being cleared away for some new water front development. It was easier for the every day Joe to accept compared to the truth. Be honest, how would any normal person feel learning that one of the cars in the car yard was a doorway to an underground facility where aliens were kept?

They'd chalk it up to insane mutterings, or a theory cooked up by nut-jobs from the internet.

"_We've found the larger entrance, sir._" Mr. Lloyd reported as he walked up. "_It was hidden beneath the Eastern cars._"

"_Excellent. Have you located the power controls? The keyboard?_" Mr. Buratto asked, turning his head only just to look down at Mr. Lloyd.

"_Unfortunately not. We believe it's only able to be opened from inside._" Mr. Lloyd replied with a frown. "_But we can't be too far from finding the usual entrance. There's only so much wrecked cars can hide._"

"_Indeed._" Mr. Buratto said as he put his hands behind him and gripped at each of his hands as he over looked the work. Being able to only work at night had put a damper on his plans, but you didn't do this kind of thing in the middle of the day when anyone could just happen along and see large metal doors in the ground that led to things they did best not knowing about it.

The large man smiled to himself before reaching and touched his right side breast pocket, where a keycard sat. It had been in the deceased Mr. Scott's safe just as they knew it would be. With the keycard in possession, all they had to do was find where it went. Then everything down below would be theirs, and once their prey were caught, they had a place to keep them before the 'big' move.

"_It's going quite well. Wouldn't you say?_" he asked one of the workers who were passing him.

"I don't speak French, buddy." replied the man before walking on.

"Tch. Americans." Mr. Buratto muttered to himself.

_To be continued_


	11. Chapter 11

"This is Roxanne Ritchi reporting with a most curious crime. Funeral home Lanchester and Sons arrived into work today to find things quite amiss. The crematorium, where bodies are brought to be cremated, had been operated at some point during the dead of night by unknown assailants who broke into the funeral home."

The woman stood outside a distinguished looking funeral home, where a black hearse was parked out front but luckily without a coffin in. Roxanne guessed it had been placed there for show, to ensure that those people watching the news would remember how great and fancy a funeral home they were because of their big flashy car.

"Nothing was reported stolen from the funeral home, and when security checked the tapes they found nothing." of course they had found _something_ but not something people wanted aired on the news since the last time this kind of breaking and entering had occurred it had been orchestrated by Megamind. The security cameras, all of them, had turned themselves off around midnight and had remained off for an hour.

How would the city know that Six, and a select few, had broken into the funeral home to cremate a small dead fish that had been kept in a ball full of chemicals for too long? Roxanne had been shocked when Six had appeared outside her window, an hour to midnight, and asked her if she would come with him. Overjoyed to just see the alien alone, she had agreed. So she had been there, wearing new shoes and dressed in black, standing alongside Six and Lady Doppler.

What a strange service it had been. Six, dressed in simple black clothing, had said very little.

"He's always been my friend. He's always been a part of me. But now it's his time to rest."

With that he had opened the ball, drained the fluids down a sink, and had placed the small baby fish the size of a peach into the large machine. It didn't take long for it to happen, he was so small after all, and it had happened in complete silence. Six had then gathered up the ashes, broken the two girls _out_ of the funeral home, restarted the cameras and dropped Roxanne off home.

"Are you going to be all right?" Roxanne had asked around one thirty in the morning, when Six was perched on her balcony holding a small jar that now contained the remains of the fish.

"I don't know." he had replied honestly.

"Where are you two now, you still won't tell me." she wanted to know, badly. "None of you will tell me..."

"It's better that way." Six had said quietly. "You may be being watched. Or bugged. I can't contact you. You can't know. Just know..." he trailed off and looked at her, those probing green eyes of hers staring into her very soul. "...it's not going to be easy."

With that he had stepped off the balcony, fallen down into the darkness of the city, and was gone.

Which was why, when Roxanne awoke this morning to a ringing phone call to go to Lanchester and Sons funeral homes she knew what it was all about. Of course, she couldn't let that slip at all, that she was there and had been at an odd little funeral for an odd little fish by the alien who had loved him in death as much as he would have in life. But still her mind swarmed. Lady Doppler hadn't answered any questions; in fact the woman had barely said five words to her during the entirety of the night. The tall, beautiful, white haired woman had practically hung off Six for the duration of the ceremony, stroking his arms, hand, even his head.

Which, kind of, was a relief to see Six growing so used to being touched by people. Just the fact it was _this_ person, who had brought so much trouble to Metro City in the first place, upset her. That was the only reason of course; there was nothing more to it.

The story covered she cut the camera and sighed.

"Wonder why the big wigs didn't want ya mentioning the cameras?" Hal asked as he carried the camera over towards their news van. "I mean, don't people have a right to know the truth about stuff?" he continued to ask her even if it was possible she wouldn't answer him. If she gave him a too specific answer he might jump to conclusions. But the red head appeared to be doing all the jumping himself, this time.

"Oh man remember the last time cameras 'round the city began to mess up?" he turned to look at her, his eyes wide with recognition. She just stared back at him with mild interest, but very, very mild interest. "Megamind!" Hal announced loudly, making Roxanne flinch slightly.

"Oh come on Hal." she sighed as she walked around him to the passenger side of the van to pull the door open. "Megamind's been dead for three months."

"They never found a body!" Hal pointed out.

"Would the government admit to that?" Roxanne asked pointedly.

"They would, after everything he did to the city! This, this whole place was his play ground for years 'n we didn't even know it! What if he faked his death, only to come back now? But why would he break into a funeral home, take nothing, and leave?" Hal asked, more of himself, as he stroked his chin stubble before shoving the camera into the back of the van and slamming the doors shut.

"Exactly Hal." she replied, climbing into her seat as he joined her in the drivers. "Why wouldn't he steal something? It's what Megamind did. This isn't him, it can't be him."

While Roxanne hoped that since the guys in charge had informed her to not mention the cameras meant that the French men wouldn't learn of the break in, she had her doubts. They had signed permission from the vice-president of the United States to do what they had to in order to get a hold of the two aliens running around Metro City. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if they were well aware of it not an hour after the break in.

A sleek black car suddenly drove around them, and Roxanne couldn't help but notice the car had no number plates on it. A small white plaque stuck out on the back window, which probably gave the car permission to be places it shouldn't, and Roxanne felt her heart freeze in her chest. It was them, she just knew it! They had already been at the funeral home searching for things that the regular police would miss! Had she seen any men in black suits during her shoot? She couldn't remember, but would they want her to recognize any of them if it was them?

"Hal!" Roxanne suddenly said, making Hal jump behind the wheel.

"What, what?" he asked.

"Follow that car, but discreetly!" she said, pointing to the black car.

"What, why?" Hal asked, looking at her briefly before back to the car.

"Just do this for me, Hal. Please?" Roxanne looked at him imploringly and judging by his face turning beet red when he saw her told her he was already going to say yes.

Hal groaned and, as predicted, did as instructed. The black car didn't seem to pick up on being followed since it wasn't trying to loose them at all. Roxanne thanked her luck for this as the white van kept a good distance from the expensive looking black car that lead them through the city towards the dock areas that were coined 'Scrap Road'. It was there where a great deal of scrap yards took up business, impounded cars were brought here too, and hoodlum cars were destroyed.

They parked a good distance away and Roxanne watched, amazed. The black car drove into one of the scrap yards that was full of garbage and junk and pulled behind some and vanished.

"A scrap yard?" Hal asked incredulously.

"A scrap yard." Roxanne echoed, remembering M's confession. His father had run a medical facility which had been turned into a prison for a blue alien, located under the city. Was this it? Was this where the entrance way was? She wouldn't dare go any further, at least in day light, and swallowed thickly.

"Are these the guys you were after, Roxy?" her camera man asked, watching her face carefully.

"...no, no. I thought they were. Guess they're just... rich metal yard owners or something..." Roxanne said quietly.

Hal, naturally, asked all kinds of questions as he drove her back to the station about why she had him follow them, were they somebody she knew, if so how, but she refused to give him any answers. The less Hal knew, the better it was for everyone. If news got out and spread by word of mouth, or any other kind of way, things could go from bad to worse.

But, she wondered, maybe it was already set to go worse anyway?

~*~

"Today's a big day. Are you all ready?" Six asked the fish tank where four sets of eyes stared out at him.

"Sir yes sir!"

"Oh yes."

"Very!"

"I'm so excited!"

All were said at once so it was a jumble of answers and Six had to laugh at the enthusiasm. "All right then."

A lot had been leading up to this day, and for the past few weeks Six had worked on nothing but the suits that now hung suspended by the ankles above him. They were of four animal designs, and he was quite proud of them since just like Minion's first robot suit they had been created from various scraps of metal he had found. Even some machinery from the old cinema had been worked into a design, here or there. His designs this time consisted an ox, a bear, a lion and a monkey with wings. The last one had been inspired by the Wizard of Oz, one of the movies he and Lady Doppler had discovered in the cinema and had watched.

Six had a strong connection with animal shaped suits since they offered much more room for strength, and fire power, than slim, human shaped ones. While these suits could move on all fours, they could also operate on two legs if needed be by the fish who would be positioned, like Minion, in the head of the creature.

"Jaws, you're up first." Six said as he reached into the water and picked up the red eyed fish.

"Affirmative, Sir!" retorted the fish who, somehow, had picked up army like responses. He had been the 'bully' fish inside the tank, who had nipped at his siblings to keep them in line and because of this he got the lion's body that had fake fur along its legs and of course around the neck. A pre-filled dome of water was being held by Lady Doppler, and Six lowered Jaws into it before attaching the dome to the body.

"All right... moment of truth now." the blue alien slowly turned the lions body so it was down on all fours. He released his control of it and the metal body fell to the floor with a noisy clang where it lay there a second. "Remember the training in the trial body. You can do this." he said quietly to Jaws, who was shifting around in the domed head. "Feel the body. It's an extension of you now."

Lady Doppler moved closer to Six and had to wonder, was this anything like how a normal adult felt when their child took a first step? Watching Jaws' steely resolve in his features as he bared his sharp teeth and the legs began to move at his command made her feel... proud? But she had little to nothing to do with this creation. This was all Six's, whose face was watchful.

"That's it. You're doing it. You're doing it!" Six cried out as the lions body suddenly stepped back onto its hind legs, testing itself. "Oh. That's wonderful."

Jaws looked down at his front hands, and tested them. The paws became hands, claws remaining, and he grinned triumphantly. "Mission successful!" he announced, and looked to Six with a huge grin on his face. "Achieved control of body, as ordered, sir!"

"Wonderful."

What followed were similar experiences. The fish, who had named themselves Blue, Claw and Alice got into their bodies. Blue, which was oddly colored a deep, rich green, was housed in the ox body complete with horns sprouting out of the top of his dome. Claw, a silver glowing fish, was placed in the bear and that left Alice, a pinkish red fish and only female to survive out of ten, got the winged monkey.

All four of them had their own distinct personalities, too, which Six found amazing. Jaws was abrupt, honest but brutal about it. Claw was a loner who kept mostly to himself but knew the importance of team work and sticking with his siblings. Blue was never too serious and got on Jaws nerves a lot. Little Alice was sweet, loyal, and like what Minion might have been if he had been female and... well. Alive.

On top of that, all of them called him a different thing. To Jaws, he was Sir. Blue called him Mister. Claw called him Master. And Alice called him my Lord. While Six had tried to get them to all follow Jaws and refer to him as sir, as Minion... might have done, there was no changing the fishes mind. They were stubborn that way, but Six could only accept that's what made them different to Minion. They were their _own_ fish, and he had to willingly accept that.

"Oh don't you look amazing, all of you!" Lady Doppler gushed as she ran a hand through the fake fur on Blue's arm. "Monsieur Mind truly went all out in creating all of ze bodies."

"He's very good at what he does." Alice spoke up, "But I didn't like how he went without sleep so often!"

"Agreed." Jaws said. "Sir deserves a good long rest while we keep guard of the good Lady Doppler."

"Mister, Lady Doppler's right." Blue said as he walked closer to Six in his new mechanical body. "You look like death warmed up, and that's being polite."

Six sighed, but gave a small smile as he rubbed at his eyes. "I know. I know. You're right. You're right." A metal charm in the shape of a fish that hung around his neck glinted in the evening light, and if you knew what he had done the night previous you would know that the small fish, and chain itself, had been made of a mixture of Minion's remains and some metal. Like he had promised, somewhere, the fish would never be left alone again.

After almost being ordered to bed Six made his way to the mattress he had 'found' a few days ago. It was amazing what people dumped, and with a few blankets and sheets it made a doable bed. Sitting on the bed he removed his jacket and was just reaching down to unlock his legs when the door to the old projection room opened, and Lady Doppler walked in holding a cup of hot tea. Many of the devices in the cinemas cafe and back room were still operational, it just took a matter of connecting them to the power core he had created out of his binkey and buying a few bits and pieces and everything went fine.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Non." she shook her head as she walked up to him and sat besides him on the bed.

He nodded and continued removing his legs. They were due for another quick maintenance check, but he could do that once he had gotten a good sleep. "They're good, aren't they?" Six asked quietly.

"Zey are a piece of art, Monsieur Mind." Lady Doppler replied with a smile. She set the cup of tea besides the bed. "Zis ez for you."

"Oh, oh thanks. You didn't have to..." Six mumbled.

"Yes, I do." she said firmly. "You 'ave done so much around zis place, et ez amazing. But you never give yourself ze credit you deserve! You just spent four weeks work making animal bodies for ze leetle fish, and zey look up to you so much, just like I do. But every compliment we give, you turn away. Why? You think you do not deserve et?"

Six held his right leg in his hands and stared at her for a moment, before looking back at his leg and sighed. "I. I don't want to get... I'm afraid if I start to think too much of myself, I might become too much like how I used to be. I was so full of myself. Megamind was full of himself. Nothing fazed him, or me." _not even murder, blackmail, criminal activities…_

"You are scared zat you will become something evil again?" Lady Doppler asked quietly, knowing this was like walking on egg shells.

"...I'm _terrified_ of it." Six admitted quietly as his hands gripped the leg tightly in his hands. "That... that Megamind comes back, but worse. Do you know how mad he was at the loss of our power? He was infuriated. It took so much energy to keep him under wraps I was in a trance for weeks. I barely ate, slept, or anything. I was a mess."

Lady Doppler took his leg from him and placed it on the floor before gently grasping his face, and lifted it slightly so they were looking at each other eye to eye. "You are not a monster, Monsieur Mind. Every day you are becoming your own person, ze man you were meant to be. Megamind 'as not 'ad control of you in weeks, and zat ez a good thing! You 'ave come so far in such a short time, I am so, _so_ proud of you. I wish zat my English was better, so zat I could really tell you 'ow proud I am." she said.

Six looked at the woman, before lifting his hands and placed them over the white gloves she wore and smiled faintly. "You don't have to improve your English. It's fine the way it is."

"My accent ez 'orrible." Lady Doppler said with a pout.

"No, no. It suits you. I like it, the way it is." he replied, before giving a faint laugh. Seems it was suddenly his job to give her a pep talk instead of the other way around.

"I like you ze way you are too, Monsieur Six." Lady Doppler said quietly, as she withdrew her hands from him. "I like you very, very much."

The blue alien stared at her blankly for a moment, before a look of realization crossed his face. Was this what he thought it was? He could easily find out, he knew he could, but his conscious said no, don't do that. Let her say what she wants to say to you, don't destroy this. He swallowed slowly, and gave a slow nod. He had to be honest with himself, didn't he? This woman who had all but crashed into his life had been an almost constant part of it since that day. He made her feel safe, and she made him feel sane. They both relied on each other for two totally different things, and sharing a similar history together had meshed far quicker than he thought possible.

She had read the reports he had taken back from Roxanne, and sometimes he would be in the middle of working on something when she would rush up to him and hold him for so long he wondered if she had fallen asleep. Neither asked the other of their experiences, since it was too painful to. Instead they talked, and laughed, about so much else. On some days when they were feeling brave they'd head out into the city, to try and have a 'normal' day together. They went shopping for food, or clothes. The two would sit in the park and watch the world pass them by. They watched movies in the old cinema together, and most times the woman would end up leaning against him or just placing her hand over his.

It was a natural thing, something Six would never have thought possible. Before her, his life had been full of pain in some shape or form. Physical, emotional, spiritual... everything had hurt, in some way. But with her, it hadn't been that way at all.

"I'm scared." Six admitted quietly, unable to look at the white haired woman. "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I've never been unsure of myself and... and that scares me."

"Zen let me be ze one who knows what to do, for once." Lady Doppler said softly. "All right?" she asked.

"...all right." he replied quietly.

He watched as she began to move closer towards him, and his whole body stiffened as she closed the space between them and pressed her lips softly to his own. The blue alien was unresponsive, still, unmoving and unblinking at this happened. His memory exploded and he remembered the last time a woman had kissed him, and what had happened afterwards. Had Roxanne kissed him out of pity? Was Lady Doppler doing this, now, because of pity? It couldn't be that. It didn't feel like that, at all. It felt of many, many things, none of them of which he was sure about. He felt her begin to pull back, but she returned moments later, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as she kissed him a second time, possibly trying to gauge a response from him.

This was right, wasn't it? It felt a kind of, a shade of right. She wasn't hurting him, and he had never hurt her, he had promised her he never would. Her breath was hot against his face as she breathed out of her nose, and he was suddenly aware of everything about her. The way her heart was beating so quickly within her chest, the breath in her lungs being withheld since she didn't want to break away from him for a silly thing like breathing, then there was the strength of her arms around him, how her hands clutched at him desperately.

It was like reading her mind yet he wasn't.

Six shuddered against her and finally retaliated. His arms lifted and clutched at her back as his mouth apprehensively kissed her in return, since he had only ever experienced something like this with one other woman before, and it felt like a life time ago.

This was a new life for him, and her, and so far it had been better then the last one he had alone. If this, whatever it was that was happening between them, would further cement a life together he would never deny it again.

_To be continued_


	12. Chapter 12

"Just look at it all." Mr. Buratto said as he walked the long hallways. "To think this could all happen in just a few years time..." he eyed the green growth that had taken over some of the walls and ceiling of the once pristine white walls.

When they had finally located the main entrance to the underground facility they had discovered the entrance was blocked by melted cars, and a few caved in rocks. An excavation team had blown clear the entrance and what awaited down in the darkness could have been anyone's guess. All of the rooms were still in one piece thankfully enough, but those entering had braced themselves for were the bodies. They had found them. There were men and women of difference races and ages were scattered here and there in hallways, doorways, or in rooms locked from the outside.

All in all it was a body count of thirty two people. Their skins were tight and dry, and their bodies well into decomposing down in the darkness where they had been left.

Dental records were used to find their names, and unsurprisingly everyone here had been listed as 'missing' for the past few years. As the days past autopsies were preformed on the bodies and some of the deaths were hard to swallow, let alone face. Some had suffered heart attacks. Others had had their lungs squeezed. Others brains had haemorrhaged. Those who had been security men were riddled with bullet holes, strong enough to penetrate the Kevlar vests they wore yet all of their guns were still in their hands when the bodies were located.

Six, upon his second attempt at breaking out, had obviously taken no chances. He had left no survivors, and then gone out after those who hadn't been there that day.

"A monster. That is what he is." Mr. Lloyd said as he observed the preserved aliens one through four.

"A monster created by American hands." Mr. Buratto replied calmly as he stared at the large eyed, large headed alien that was number one. "They brought this carnage upon themselves. It's a wonder we found any technical data left, he seems to have taken much of it with him."

"A miracle we found anything." muttered Mr. Lloyd.

Mr. Buratto nodded, before they walked out of the once blocked off room. "Ah but what we did find... maybe he couldn't find it, that was why it was left behind?" he theorized. "Unless he felt it was best left here, abandoned, and long forgotten."

"Foolish actions of a scared child." Mr. Lloyd nodded.

"A scared child killed over thirty grown adults. I don't think he was that scared." Mr. Buratto mumbled as he observed some dried blood that had long since stained the once pristine floor.

The actual lights in the ceilings suddenly flickered to life, and the facility was flooded in light. Up until that moment, strove lights had been brought in and roped up on the ceilings and set on the ground to ensure people knew where they were going and that they wouldn't step on anything... or anyone's remains.

"In a few weeks this site shall be fully operational. Then we can really begin our hunt for Six and Seven." Mr. Buratto smiled to himself, "And we will achieve what we set out to do years ago."

~*~

Six stood in the darkness, and stared out at the world outside. The sun wasn't even up yet, but he knew today was going to be the day he had been dreading ever since he had learned about the men in black from France being in the city. He was prepared, he was ready, yet he still felt a rush of fear and apprehension. What if something went wrong? What if Lady Doppler, currently sleeping peacefully in their bed, was captured again?

"No." he said quietly. That wasn't an option, it wasn't going to happen. Jaws and Blue would see to that, as would Alice and Claw. He had talked them through the plan and while they indeed looked horrified by what he was telling them, they knew they had to obey his orders. It was their job to listen to him, to do what he told them to do, no matter how much they hated it.

"Sir." Jaws had approached quietly, and had dropped down to one of his knees as Six turned to look at him. This was another habit the red fish had picked up from somewhere, and Six had learned to not try and tell him otherwise in how to approach him.

"Yes?" Six asked quietly as the morning sun finally began to slowly creep into the room.

"Sir, your outfit is ready." Jaws reported. "Alice spent all night on it, and it is now ready Sir."

He followed the lion-suited fish down the stairs and into what, had once been, the main cinema. Chairs had been uprooted and stolen years ago by looters, high teenagers, and crazy homeless types along with artists, leaving it mostly empty and free space. Besides the old piano was a sewing machine, and other materials needed to create clothing. Alice was standing in front of a tailors dummy, especially made, that had a black looking outfit on display.

"Alice!" Jaws called out, causing the wings on her body to stick out in surprise before she turned around. "Sir is here to inspect the clothing."

"Oh, oh wonderful!" Alice rushed over to Six and grasped his hand, smiling excitedly. "I hope you like it my Lord, it's just like the one you wore before! Only I added a few more touches I hope you find it pleasing my Lord."

"I'm sure I'm going to love it." Six replied quietly as he approached the clothing and observed it.

Black, silver, and a blue lightning bolt. At least the basics were here. The shoulder blades were impressive, long, pointy, and the silver spikes sticking out of them were even taller than the last time he wore an outfit like this. He reached out and touched the material with his bare hand, liking the feel of it. The cape was long and flowing, and no doubt would look impressive with a gust of wind blowing with it.

Six turned his head and smiled at Alice. "You did a wonderful job."

She beamed within her bowl and lit up brightly, and clapped her metal hands together. "Yay!"

"Has Blue returned with what I requested?" Six asked as he picked at the edge of the cape, running his blue fingers along the material. Blue had become the 'hunter gatherer' of the group, always willing to head out into the city in disguise to find, buy, or sometimes steal, what was needed by the group. He got the job done, and didn't draw attention to himself, which was a plus for everyone.

"Sir, Blue has just returned from his mission, Sir." Jaws reported.

"Someone say my name?" Blue asked as he lumbered into the room carrying a bag in his massive hand. He grinned either way and held the bag out to Six. "Here you go Master, shaving stuff just as you requested."

Six reached up and took the bag, and looked inside. He smirked. "And after shave." he mumbled affectionately.

"Can't leave your face unmoisturized, Master." Blue replied wisely.

With that Six left the three fish alone, passing a sleeping Claw who was resting by the exit, and made his way to the bathroom. Naturally since it was a cinema the bathrooms were stalls, and sinks, and nothing else. Only upstairs did they find a shower which had started working again as soon as they walked in since no way was Lady Doppler going to let herself get filthy again.

He filled a sink with water before getting all his thing things of his bag and sighed, before looking at himself in the mirror. His beard was like a birds nest now, wild, untamed, and he had to wonder how Lady Doppler could kiss him and not suffer severe rash. Still, he picked up some scissors, and began to trim the long scraggy hairs first. He hummed quietly to himself as he did, and once the long hairs were trimmed back enough he picked up the shaving cream and smeared it over the hair. "All right." he said as he picked up the razor and let the light reflect off it for a second before he began to shave.

The decision had been made; he didn't want a pointy beard like before. That was Megamind, not him. While he still wanted a beard he had decided upon just a simple little stripe of black going from under his lip to his chin and nothing else. This meant careful shaving, and when your blood was a corrosive acid, you had even more reason to shave carefully. It wasn't long until he was rinsing the water from his face and picking up the aftershave, splashing it on his hands and smacking it to his face.

"AH!" he screamed in alarm since, really, it was a shock. He shook his hands afterwards, and looked at his reflection staring back at him. Black rings were no longer under his eyes, nor did he look malnourished and sick like when Roxanne had first found him on the street. His skin was a healthy blue, and his eyes were bright, clear and no longer red from no sleep. "Damn. I look good." he mumbled as he touched his pointed chin, something he hadn't seen in years. The only downside was his chin now felt very, very sensitive to light.

Something had changed within him from all those months ago, when he had felt lost, alone, and without a purpose. No more did he feel weak, or helpless. There was a destiny waiting for him out there, and he had put all this planning and preparing into making damn sure that everything went as clockwork. He briefly thought of Roxanne and M, if they would be there. M would, no doubt, but if he knew what was good for him he would be 'unavailable'. Roxanne would no doubt drive her own van out there to film it, whatever happens...

When he walked out of the bathrooms he made his way back to where Lady Doppler was still fast asleep. He had ensured the night before that she would remain sleeping far into the day, just as he had planned. Reaching out he ran his hand through her hair slowly, before opening a small box he kept locked most times. Pulling out a letter he placed it besides her pillow, before touching her hair again.

"Just read it when you wake up." he said before leaving the room, pausing to give the woman one last glance before leaving the room entirely to return to where his clothes were.

All four of his fish were now up and waiting, including Claw who must have been awoken by Jaws after seeing him napping so early in the day. All of them gasped at seeing him without his beard, and Alice even rushed up to touch his chin with her hands. "Oh wow my Lord you look... dashing!"

"You are the very model of a modern man of great respect, sir." Jaws said stiffly.

"I think it suits you better than the bird nest." Blue said with a shrug while Claw just watched him.

"Thanks." Six said as he walked up to the outfit and touched the smooth, sleek material. "Now. Let's get this show started."

~*~

"So... let me get this straight..." Roxanne said as she sat in the small cafe, sitting across from the handsome man that was Wayne Scott who looked dashing as always in his business suit, "...your father was the one who funded the research about Six?" she asked.

"That's right." Wayne admitted, unable to order anything.

"And you couldn't tell me this in person?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. "What, did you think I wouldn't freak out at you for keeping a secret like this from me for so long in public?" Roxanne continued, voice quickly straining in her throat as she spoke. "Come on now, you're invulnerable to nothing, you're practically immortal and you're scared of me?"

"You have no idea how terrifying you can be, Roxy." Wayne replied on a small, though nervous, smile.

It had come at no surprise to him, when weeks ago, Roxanne had actually called him by his true name whilst they were in the midst of activities one did not discuss in social gatherings. Both had frozen in their actions before she had laughed, and muttered something about having known for a long, long time and had grown sick of playing his little game of secrecy. To be honest, it had come as a relief for the man to no longer having to pretend to not be Wayne Scott with the woman. But that meant some things _had_ to be shared, finally.

"God." Roxanne pressed a hand to her forehead. "I can't believe it."

"Neither could I, when Mr. Buratto came to me with the information request. But I had my men look into my father's sealed dealings and it's true. It was under some medical research tag so nobody gave it a second thought, thinking he was trying to medically advance the field when really..."

"...he was in charge of torturing a baby to adulthood." Roxanne whispered.

"Hey. He wasn't the one who did all those things to him." Wayne pointed out quietly, feeling as if he should at least defend his father a little.

"No but he might as well have." she replied, eyes narrowing again. "That approved stamp was him, and it was all over those papers I showed you. Requests for drugs to be injected into his body to 'see what they'd do', the psychological tests, Hell, _starvation?_ If that isn't torturing I don't know what is and I don't want to know!"

"Roxanne." Wayne reached out and took her hand, voice soothing. "Honey, I know. I was up for a week with all these questions buzzing in my head. Like, if my father had even known what I could do, would he have done the same thing? Would he have taken the stress of Six if he had known his own son was... was like how I am? And how could my mother keep her mouth shut over this, when she spent so much time at benefits raising money for sick children?" he shook her head, shutting his eyes as he hung it over the table, obviously ashamed. "If I could travel back into the past and show my father what I could do..."

"You would have been in Six's place too." Roxanne said, getting her chair out from under her to scoot it closer to him, uncaring of how it scraped on the floor. "But you're so strong, surely they couldn't control you..."

"Judging by what they discovered about Six, and how quickly, it wouldn't have taken them long." Wayne muttered. "Everything has a weakness, Roxy. Even me."

She sighed and wrapped her arm around the tall man's shoulders and pulled him in, and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead. Once upon a time she would have freaked out at herself for being this publicly affectionate towards the millionaire, but right now she couldn't give two shakes of a lambs tail. Naturally she expected it wouldn't be an hour until some gossip website would be spewing about seeing the reporter and rich man at lunch somewhere, being close to one another.

"...so have you heard from him?" Wayne asked after a moments silence between them.

"Not for a few days." she replied.

"How was he, last time you saw him?"

"He was looking... better. Whatever that woman's doing, it must be having some kind of affect on him. But if its good or bad is still yet to be seen." Roxanne answered, looking away for a moment.

"Still can't trust her hm?" Wayne smirked softly as he sat up, looking down at the brunette besides him.

"I can't help it. She's just so... I don't know. She's too beautiful. There has to be something to her, which is why I've been researching as much as I can on what the public know of her." Roxanne said, to which Wayne raised an eyebrow. "She isn't as allusive as people think. Yes, there was a baby found in a forest fire outside of Nice in France; people believed her white hair was due to shock and trauma to her mind, same as her eyes. But you should see some of the reports that were printed in papers; she was mean to the other children!"

"A lot of kids are mean." Wayne said slowly.

"No, she'd beat up on other children. The experts thought it was all a reaction to the trauma of the fire, but how could a baby remember that well, that clearly?" Roxanne asked.

"Six has a good memory. Maybe she does too?"

"I thought of that, but at least with him it's obvious since his head is so big. Hers is just... normal! Nothing fancy about it. What if she's actually working with Buratto and the rest?" Roxanne suddenly asked that had Wayne looking surprised. "No think about it! What if it's all a plan on theirs, to get Six? They let her go; she 'flees' to the states in order to find him. Lure him into a false sense of security, and then when he finally begins to relax they all swoop in and catch him up again?"

"That's a pretty outlandish theory. I mean, who stays the same way they were when they were a child to adulthood? And seeing how paranoid Six is, don't you think he would have thought of this by now?" Wayne asked.

"Stop poking holes in my theories! They're good ones!" Roxanne teased in, and playfully smacked his forearm even if she knew it would never hurt him.

"Ha! I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he apologized. "But you know I have a point."

"I know." Roxanne pouted.

"You just want to find something rotten about this beautiful woman who Six has found himself in the company of." Wayne said and added quickly, "Of course to me she isn't as beautiful as you. You outshine the brightest star in the sky to me."

"Nice save."

That's when, in the far distance of town, a sudden explosion erupted. Wayne turned in his seat as did Roxanne as the echo of it screamed across the city. It had been powerful enough to cause windows in the area to wobble in reaction, though thankfully nothing shattered. A few glasses teetered on the edge of tables before falling, smashing to the ground.

"What in the world..." Wayne said as he got to his feet, and Roxanne quickly followed him as they walked out of the cafeteria to look around the surrounding area. It was silent again, as if nothing had happened but there were some people coming to their office windows and out onto the street, having also heard, and felt, the explosion. "What was that?" he asked.

"I'm finding out." Roxanne pulled out her phone and pressed a speed dial number and pressed it to her ear. Just as she did the ground shook again with another explosion, this one now closer, but still no where near powerful enough to break and shatter glass. She almost lost her footing but Wayne took hold of her, keeping her steady. "Thanks-Michael!" she looked around, listening to the man on the phone. "Michael what the Hell is going on, I'm hearing explosions across town and I'm on Denver Street!"

"Oh thank God I was just about going to try and reach you!" Michael's voice came over the phone, and in the background she could hear people shouting back and forth at one another. "It's him!"

"Him?" Roxanne asked quietly.

"Megamind. He's back, and he's attacking the city!" Michael shouted above the din.

Roxanne froze for a moment, before glancing up at Wayne, who was watching the skyline. Black smoke was beginning to lift up from the distance, signatures left from the explosions that had rocked the city. "Megamind? You... you're kidding! He's dead, he's been dead six months-"

"Well he's back! Look Cheryl's texting you some footage just shot, look for yourself!" Michael said before her phone beeped noisily to let her know she had photos.

"I'll call you back." Roxanne hung up as she and Wayne left the cafe, without paying but seeing the circumstances nobody tried to stop them, as she flipped her phone to the text messages. "This can't be happening; why would he be attacking the city?" she asked the man as they walked, unknowing of a destination.

"I don't know." Wayne replied honestly while his mind raced.

"Oh my God." she stopped walking, staring at the up to date phone in her hand as a short film began to play on the screen. Wayne back tracked and looked over her shoulder at the image, and stared in silence.

It was a shaky image, and you could see people's horrified expressions being reflected in the glass that the film had been shot through.

"Oh Jesus fuckin' Christ look, oh Jesus!" one of those near by was swearing up a storm while everyone else was either joining in on the swearing or simply staring in silence.

Sure enough, walking along the street, was Six. He was decked out in black clothing, a cape long and regal looking, with a collar that eclipsed his massive head. Spikes lined his gloves, his boots, as well as his shoulders. He suddenly opened his arms and the film zoomed back to show every vehicle parked on the street suddenly seemed to vibrate before flying towards one another. The crunches of metal and screeching of machinery ripped through the air before Six threw his arm, as if throwing a ball to a pet, and the ball went flying.

It exploded off screen, filling the image with black smoke as red flames ripped and curled where it had landed. The camera had followed the explosion and when it looked back to where Six was the smoke was still thick, but it suddenly vanished as though a fan had been turned on.

"Oh shit." said the man filming it because Six was looking straight at him. The film suddenly blinked on and off for a brief second, before shorting out, leaving Roxanne and Wayne staring at a black screen.

_To be continued_


	13. Chapter 13

In the distance another explosion erupted, sending plumes of black smoke twirling and twisting into the sky.

"What do I do?" Wayne asked Roxanne, "Do I go after him?"

"I don't... I don't know." she replied honestly as she replayed the short clip on her phone again, pausing it as Six was lifting his hands to lift the cars. "Look at him. He hasn't looked like that since..."

"Megamind." he finished for her, frowning. "It could be him."

"But he's been getting better, why would he lapse now? What-" Roxanne froze for a moment. "Oh no."

"Oh no?" Wayne didn't like the sound of that oh no at all.

"What if... what if this is his way of calling Buratto out of hiding? Launch an attack on the city, and he'll have everyone watching him." Roxanne guessed, replaying the movie and shut an eye as the cars exploded off screen.

"But then everyone _will_ be watching. The cops, the army, and... and they'll want me there." Wayne said as he reached and took the phone from her.

"You can't. What if you're also what Buratto is after? You're still an alien, even with your powers if they know a way to weaken you...!" she gripped at his arm, shaking her head. "No you can't go."

"But he's endangering people!" Wayne said back, "Look he- what if those cars had people in them?"

"We have to hope and pray they didn't." Roxanne said as the two began walking again, rushing to her car. "I have to get to the office and since I drove, you're coming with me."

"I could just fly-"

"No you're coming with me. I need to keep an eye on you." she snapped, which made the man of strength lift his eyebrows in surprise before getting into the passenger seat besides her. "Good boy." she mumbled as she jammed the key into the ignition and the car drove off but not before burning a few tire treads into the road.

~*~

"Sir, Sir!" a young assistant ran up to Mr. Buratto who was sitting behind his desk and taking a sip of coffee. "He's showed himself."

Mr. Buratto glanced up at the young man before taking a long drink from his coffee, and lowered it to its saucer on the table. "Has he?"

"Footage from all over the city, he's destroying cars, shop fronts, anything that gets in his way." the man said as he thrust a folder of already printed photographs of the scenes happening out in the city.

"Any signs of her?" Mr. Buratto asked, not even looking at the folder yet.

"No sir."

The large man sighed, picked up the folder and opened it, revealing many security camera pictures of the blue alien, once more clad in black and doing just what the assistant had said. He was destroying everything, sometimes without even looking at them. He nodded slowly. "He's come a long way hasn't he? Brazen too. No robot allies with him this time, only he and he alone..."

"Do you think he knows about us?" asked the man.

"I would be honestly surprised if he didn't." Mr. Buratto put the folder down on the table before getting to his feet. "Since he's making such a fuss, I say it's fair of us to go and check up on him like any loving parent would."

"Yes sir."

~*~

The police sirens wailed as the cars sped through the city. A call out had been issued, every available officer in the vicinity to report to the Western side of Metro City as fast as you could because lives were at risk. A level headed voice was informing them of the crimes being committed, destruction of public property, intent on doing harm, threat to human life, and the list just continued to rise.

"Thought he was dead, thought M had put him in the ground!" muttered a female cop as she drove in a sea of black and white cars.

"He gave M a run for his money what's he gonna do to us?" thought a male cop as he drove, white knuckled, amongst his colleagues.

Their answer came when the cars crashed head on into a wall that didn't exist. A physical barrier had suddenly shot up like an energized flower in spring and the cars were totaled on impact. Hoods were turned into accordians, smoke billowed out from under them, and wheels continued to spin despite the car having been almost bent in half. Luckily, as police, they had their seat belts on and the cars were fitted with air bags along with side ones. That didn't stop the explosions of engines, or the screams of both cars and people at the shock of the impact.

Those able to got out of their cars did with their weapons drawn despite having no idea where Megamind was. He had to be somewhere if he could do this, surely. Some police were calling in officers down, injured in the crash, while the others cautiously approached the 'wall' they had run into. Could they pass through it, or was it blocking every and anything that would try to enter it?

Their concentration was shattered, since around the corner walked the blue man himself. His head was tilted down, but his eyes were locked on all of them. A smile crossed his face as he tilted his head back, and lifted a hand slowly.

"Open fire!" shouted somebody, and that's what they did. Bullets flew through the air at high speeds towards the alien but, unsurprisingly, they never reached their target. They stopped in mid air, turned, and shot straight back at the police men and women. Legs and arms were shot, and cries and screams from the police filled the air as they collapsed into pools of their own blood that ran free from the bullet wounds.

None were struck somewhere vital though. Funny how nobody picked up on that, focusing only on the fact Megamind had taken down a whole hoarde of police men as if they were nothing but a feather flying towards him. He stood there, observing them all for a moment, before turning his head away and continued walking in the direction he had been going before being interupted.

"You're not who I'm after." Six said quietly before he continued walking as if nothing had happened. "Not who I'm after." he said again, through gritted teeth.

~*~

"I can't believe what I'm seeing, Megamind just totaled at least twenty police cars and gunned them down with their own bullets!"

Roxanne and Wayne, along with half the floor of the KMPC 8 Building was standing in front of the huge flat screen that hung on the wall that was streaming images filmed from their helicopter currently flying over the carnage. Normally the copter was used to film traffic reports, never before had it captured something like this. As the camera moved on, just out of the corner in the screen you could see ambulances driving up to tend to the injured police.

"We continue to urge those in the area to _not_ venture out into the street!"

"This is horrible." Roxanne said, feeling sick to her stomach as she watched the helicopter footage.

"Seems all those crazy theories about him not being dead were true." mumbled Gloria.

"That or he came back from the dead?" Tony, the weatherman, asked.

"Don't be stupid." Roxanne rolled her eyes.

"Hey, he's an alien! Who knows what his body's capable of." Tony shot back, sounding insulted. "That's all we need, zombie aliens..."

"I doubt he could come back from the grave." Wayne muttered, stroking his chin in thought as he watched as Megamind continued to all but casually stroll down the street. It was apparent to him that the blue man wasn't really attacking; he was just drawing attention to himself. For what purpose though, Buratto? Himself? Was he suddenly suicidal? No, if so he would have let those cops shoot him down.

"Where the Hell is M?" asked Hal, "He took him down before he can do it again!"

There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd while Roxanne and Wayne exchanged glances.

"Oh my God fly up, fly up!" the screams from the television brought everyone's attention back to the screen.

There was black smoke everywhere, and through the sound of the helicopter's blades spinning you could hear car wheels screeching and crashing sounds.

"More cops?" Gloria asked quietly.

"I don't know..." Roxanne replied gravely. "I hope not for their sakes."

~*~

Six stood there on the road, hands by his sides as he sensed the cars lining up around their destroyed brothers. The cars were black, sleek and expensive. His hands formed into fists but he stood his ground as men in black suits came rushing out of the vehicles. They appeared to be unarmed, which made Six a little weary of them as they got in line around the cars.

Eyes narrowed, Six stretched out with his mind to try and pick up something but there was a sudden violent, and painful, stab of hot burning pain in the middle of his head. It surprised him, making him yelp and take a step back just as the last cars door finally opened.

Out stepped a man larger than any Six had ever seen. He was even taller than M, as well as wider. The suit he wore looked expensive, and if he dare flex his muscles the material could rip and send buttons flying like bullets with deadly accuracy.

"Hello Six." the man greeted him as if he was an old friend. "It's been a long time hasn't it?"

"I don't know. Has it?" Six replied as he continued trying to read, but found it impossible to do so, as if someone had slammed a book shut to him.

"Last time I saw you, you were..." he lifted his hand and pinched at the air. "Knee high to a grasshopper. You've lost weight, too."

"Who are you?" demanded Six.

"Oh that's right. You never saw me, but I saw you. I am Mr. Buratto." Mr. Buratto finally introduced himself. "I must say, you've had my men in a run around ever since you met Seven."

Six felt a flare of anger. "I knew you'd come for her."

"Why would we come for what is always ours?" Mr. Buratto asked, raising a brow curiously. "You're the one we're after."

"Well. I'm sorry you've come all this way to be turned down." Six replied calmly. "I'm not interested. Neither is she."

"Oh good so she did find you. I'm so glad." Mr. Buratto smiled, clasping his hands together in a satisfied way. "I knew she would."

Six didn't like where this was heading. He just couldn't tell what this man was thinking, and that surprised him. Normally reading a persons mind was the simplest thing for him to do but it was as if there was an impenetrable safe concealing Mr. Buratto's mind. Never before had Six encountered something like this. Were his powers weakening? Had they reached their 'use by' date, today of all days?

"Enough of this." Six growled as he took a step back and raised his hands, fingers twitching as he did. "You want me? Come and get me. See if you last longer than the last men who tried to take me without my consent."

"Who, the security guards?" Mr. Buratto asked.

Six froze.

"Or the doctors and nurses, who you crushed from the inside out?" continued the man. "Who you all left to rot underground? Oh yes, you did a fine job against them."

"You..." Six started.

"I know about it. I was there when you were but a baby, observing. And I'm back there, cleaning up the mess a very dirty boy left behind." Mr. Buratto explained. "After we cleared out all the bodies and blood, it's almost livable again. But it just doesn't feel right, without you there."

"I'm not going back." said Six quietly, the strength in his voice wavering only just.

"Oh but you are." Mr. Buratto replied in that tone parents use when they know they're right.

"No. I'm NOT!" Six screamed as he threw his hands like a child.

Nothing happened.

He had tried to throw the cars; to pick up the men and hurl them away but nothing was happening. Hearts racing, Six looked at Mr. Buratto, eyes wide.

"This is no longer an argument, Six." Mr. Buratto said. "You think we spent all our time since learning about your powers doing nothing? Not spending years on research finding ways to block your neurological controls? Just try to do something. Move that car, right there. Move it."

"No." Six said stiffly.

"No?" Mr. Buratto asked.

"I don't want to." Six replied shakily.

"You can't." Mr. Buratto smiled triumphantly. "Can't fly, can't read minds, can't move things... and what good is your killing instinct if you can't get close enough to use it? You're coming home, Six. Where you belong. Where you can be monitored, watched, cared for."

Six did not like this. He hadn't felt this kind of fear in years. The hopeless feeling crushing down upon him was just as bad as it used to be when he was in the facility, when he knew needles were coming, or all the tests that happened after his first attempt to escape. These men knew what they were doing. Had Lady Doppler brought them here accidentally, or on purpose? What if she was in on this plan? But he had read her mind; she had suffered just like he had.

"_What if that was a lie?_" Megamind asked from the depths of his mind.

The voice shocked Six. Megamind had been quiet for a long time now, through self control and focusing on his work the voice that had once been an angry yell had softened to a whisper, then to nothing. But it was back, and it sounded as if he was rapidly approaching from the depths.

"_They can stop our powers. What's to stop them implanting false memories? Humans are liars, Six. They are nothing more than disgusting, filthy liars who you can't trust. You trust far too easily. Roxanne, and now her._" Megamind continued.

"N-no." Six voiced his horror as he took another step back as a few of the men began to move closer to him while Mr. Buratto stood there, watching.

"_Minion warned you that it wasn't going to be pretty. Come back to me, Six. Come back._"

The men watched as the frightened, intimidated alien suddenly underwent a transformation. His shaking stopped, his wide eyes narrowed, and the expression on his face went from fear to absolute malice. Even with his abilities being blocked by means he didn't see, or understand, Megamind suddenly leaped upon a man in a black suit that was closest to him. The man cried out but was silenced as Megamind's teeth sunk into his throat, and ripped out his jugular. Rich, red liquid rolled down his chin and throat, and he snarled like a caged animal. The other men looked terrified, but it seemed they were more afraid of Mr. Buratto then meeting a bloody end at the hands of Six since none of them tried to run away from him.

Deep within Megamind, Six curled in on himself, covered his eyes and ears, and screamed.

"Shoot him." Mr. Buratto said calmly as he watched the black clad alien pull another man to him, breaking his neck with the kind of expertise you only received after years of training.

Megamind screamed as a pain shot through his arm, and looked down to see a small dart sticking out of his arm. While they knew most things, it seemed as though they didn't know everything; the tranquilizer was useless against him. It had taken the doctors years to find a means in which to knock him out, and he had destroyed and any all evidence of it upon his second break out.

Mr. Buratto watched as a group of his men tried to tackle the alien to the floor, but he had to admit he was impressed when two of them were knocked down by a swinging leg connecting with their ankles and the others pushed away as if they were nothing. "Physical strength is impressive, for his body frame." he commented to Mr. Lloyd who stood besides him.

"Indeed." Mr. Lloyd agreed as he reholstered the gun under his arm.

Megamind dribbled his white blood onto his fingers before smearing it purposely over one mans eyes. He ignored the screams of agony from the man as he turned on another and with a flare of his cape used it to smother the mans face and neck before lifting him over his shoulder and slammed him down onto the road, filling the air with a sickening cracking sound. Another man tried, and failed, to grab at his arm since he grabbed at the arm that was bleeding. His hands felt like they were on fire and he staggered back, staring at them in alarm as he screamed.

It was now that Megamind pulled a gun from its holster by his hip and pointed it at the man with the burning hands and pulled the trigger; the man was engulfed in a flash of red light and everything burned away instantly before nothing but a skeleton and cooked innards clattered to the floor in a bloody mess.

Everyone froze, at least those who were able to, and stared at Megamind with wide eyes.

High above them, a helicopter continued to hover.

"Oh... didn't count on this, did you?" Megamind asked as a large, triumphant smile on his face. "No, no. You think you know everything? You DON'T!" he screamed as he turned the gun onto Mr. Buratto. "And I'll tell you what. I'm not going back there. I promised myself, I would never, _ever_ go back there."

"Promises are made to be broken." Mr. Buratto said, surprisingly calm despite having just witnessed one of his men all but disintigrated before his eyes.

"Not this one." Megamind spat, his green eyes wide and wild with that of an animal being caught by people, but still fighting despite how hopeless it was. "I killed them. I'll kill you. I'll kill anyone who dares come near me with the intent of taking me 'home' again."

"You know what benefits you offer the human race, don't you?" asked Mr. Buratto. "Your genetics are that potent and powerful they could cure any and all diseases. Your technologically advanced weaponry could revolutionize the world."

"I could condemn the entire human race to a fiery death." Megamind said stiffly, "And right now I'd most probably follow through with it."

"Maybe." Mr. Buratto said as he took a step forward despite the De-Gun trained on his chest. "You'd be free then, wouldn't you?" he asked. "That's all you've been after. But that is not an option for the likes of you, Six. It never was, or will it ever will be. Your influence will help shape the future of the human race one way or another. That's your destiny. It was your destiny ever since you landed on this planet."

"If you all knew about me, why not the other one, who landed with me? Why wasn't he captured and tortured?" Megamind demanded, "Don't deny you know nothing of him!"

"Oh, believe me. We know." Mr. Buratto replied calmly.

"So why only me?" Megamind screamed voice shaking.

"Because we already know everything about his kind."

The massive French man was suddenly right there, in front of Megamind. He hadn't even blinked but here was here, towering over him with a judging look on his face. "Just not you." and with that he reached forward to grab the De-Gun.

Megamind pulled the trigger; but it seemed to literally bounce off of the man in front of him. It arched somewhere else, and he heard the sounds of something crumpling but didn't dare turn his face away to see what he had hit. The alien staggered backwards, and held the gun close to his chest. So that's why they never went after M, despite all he could do. He was no danger to anyone, he had been raised to not use his powers. Mr. Buratto seemingly could, and had years of experience that M did not. Everything suddenly fell into place and Megamind did not like the picture he saw.

"And now you'll never know." he said as he pressed the De-Gun under his chin and pulled the trigger.

~*~

Lady Doppler sat up in her bed, jolted awake by a nightmare. She sat there, clutching the bed sheets to her, and looked around the room. What time was it? The sun was high in the sky, and when she looked besides her Six was gone and an envelope was on his pillow. "What?" she asked softly as she picked it up and turned it over in her hands before opening it.

_Dear Lady Doppler___

_I'm sorry that I laced your tea last night with a chemical designed to induce sleep the way I did. That was a terrible thing to do, but I couldn't risk you coming with me today. It would be just too dangerous and I would never forgive myself if you were captured, injured, or worse during my journey towards revenge.___

_I hope you don't see this as me stealing revenge from you, but it's more to it then that. They came to my city, ruffled my feathers, and for that I have to confront them.___

_I really hope you do forgive me since I also gave you something that will null your abilities for a while. I know the antidote, as does one of my fish in case I never come back. If I'm taken captive by these men, which I will work hard at not happening, I don't want you rushing in to save me. You've lived your entire life under these monsters thumb and your freedom is what matters most to me now. I want you to try and work things out with Roxanne, I know you two don't see eye to eye at all, and wait for me.___

_Jaws, Claw, Blue and Alice will watch over you. I've instructed them to never leave you unattended, and will do anything you ask as long as it doesn't clash with the direct orders I've given them. If I'm right, there's one of them standing outside your door right now as you read this.___

_You brought meaning to a life that was almost lost, and for that I'm going to be eternally grateful. If my life does end today, or if I'm taken away to have it ended elsewhere, know that the past few months have been far better then they ever have been because you were there.___

_I'm not sure if what I feel for you is love, or if either of us is really capable of falling in love with anyone, but you made me happy.___

_P.S. Wear Minion around your neck for me. When I come back, you can give him back to me.___

_All my apologies,__  
__Six_

Inside the envelope she found the small fish necklace made of Minion's remains, and she stared at it before looking at the letter for a second time before re-reading it again. He was gone? He had left her behind to go tackle Mr. Buratto and the men without her? Just because he was afraid she'd get hurt? That was the most insulting thing she had ever heard! And what did he mean null her abilities? She couldn't fly anymore? Control the weather?

Grunting she got out of the bed and rushed to the window and gasped. There was thick black smoke in the distance, at least six towers of it curling up into the mid day sky. For the first time ever, Lady Doppler wished she had a television. Six had left theirs behind in his old apartment, feeling he was better without the distraction.

"Non, non..." she rushed to the door and pulled it open and jumped in surprise since, as Six had guessed, somebody was waiting outside... it was Claw. He turned in his dome and stared down at her with his cool blue eyes, watching her with mild interest though there was a tinge there in his face that read one of sadness.

"Claw!" Lady Doppler looked up at the towering ox bodied fish. "Claw, where ez 'e? Please, 'e 'as not left, 'as 'e?" she asked, her accent coming in thicker due to the fear in her voice.

Claw observed her in silence, as he always did, before giving a nod of his body in answer to her question. Yes. Master was gone, he had left hours ago.

Lady Doppler covered her mouth and cried out in alarm. She was about to launch into a rant of questions at the fish but remembered, Claw just did not speak, so she rushed past him and down the stairs to the main seating area where she knew the rest of the fish would be. She slammed the doors open and walked in, finding Jaws, Blue and Alice sitting around something. "What ez ze meaneng of zis?" she asked, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "Monsuier Mind ez gone and you, you just let hem?"

"Sir gave us direct orders." Jaws said as he got to his feet and looked down at her. "We do not argue with direct orders from him."

"But 'e could be dead! Don't you care?" Lady Doppler asked, tears now rolling down her face.

"That is a stupid question!" Jaws snapped, "Of course we care! Sir is our creator, our alpha, our omega, our everything! It was agony not following him when he left this morning! But his word is law and he ordered us to watch you until he returns to us!"

"And what eef 'e never does?" she demanded.

"Then he shall live on in our memories forever." Jaws replied.

Lady Doppler glared at the fish before glancing at the other two. Blue had his arm around Alice, who had her metal hands to her dome, trying to hide the obvious pain on her face. She hadn't known these fish as long as Six had, and sometimes she felt like something similar to a step-mother when dealing with these four fish but she knew suffering when she saw it. All of them were hurting from Six having head off to 'war' alone without them. Even Claw, in his solitary silence, looked absolutely heart broken.

Lady Doppler looked down in her hand, at the small necklace she had grabbed out of the envelope. Without a word she silently hung it around her neck, and took a shaky breath before looking at the four fish and the only sound within the room was the whirring of four air filters on robotic backs.

_To be continued_


	14. Chapter 14

"Carnage in the streets of Metro City today when Megamind, long believed to be dead, went on a rampage-"

_Click._

"—at least forty officers were wounded in the line of duty and taken to Metro City Hospital for treatment. The pile up of cars-"

_Click._

"-with damages estimated at reaching over one million dollars, Metro City has a clean up to look forward to at the tax payers expense-"

_Click._

"-took his own life. We warn that some viewers may find the following footage disturbing."

The image switched to a security recording of the incident. Of course it isn't too close; if it was, they would have to blur over half the screen to ensure nobody saw just how many men had been slaughtered that day. A massive man in a black suit is looming over Megamind, who is holding a weapon in his hand. He steps back, pushes the gun under his chin and the screen fills with a bright flash of light. When it clears and fades, there are men gathering around where Megamind was. The footage ends.

"I should have gone there." Wayne said as he watched the footage freeze for that split second before the De-gun was activated. "I should have been there!"

Roxanne said nothing, as she numbly watched the screen before picking up the remote and flicked the channel again. Damn it, it was on every single channel. Megamind unleashed, Megamind's suicide, new footage of the attack, interviews with police officers who were rushed to hospital... but no contact from the men in black. They have protection. They were gone; she knew where, but didn't know if she should even go in the general direction of their location less it starts more trouble.

"Hey, hey..." his arm moves around her and she feels him pull her in close, and his hand through her hair. "I know it's not easy..."

"He... why would he...?" Roxanne finally spoke, her voice hoarse and sore from the sobbing she had unleashed earlier that day. Despite having been in the presence of her co-workers and Wayne in the office, when the screen had showed the flash of red and the aftermath that followed, Roxanne had broken down in tears. Those who didn't know her thought they were tears of joy, that the alien who had terrorized her and the city was finally dead... but for Wayne, he knew why she cried that hard. "Where was she? Why-why wasn't she help-helping him?"

"I don't know." Wayne replied quietly.

With the television off, the lofty apartment became incredibly quiet. Roxanne hated the silence of it, with every passing second only helping to secure the fact Six had taken his life and took a few of those French men with him in the process. Was it her fault? If she had been more dedicated to him, wanting to know where he lived, cooked food for him... then that woman would never had found him. They would be safe, and he'd be alive, free and happy.

The silence was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. Roxanne and Wayne sat up in surprise, before glancing at one another nervously. She slowly got to her feet and wiped her hands at her eyes, hoping they were no longer red from the tears. A quick look through the peep hole only told her a person wearing blue was on the other side. She pulled the door open and was surprised to see a woman standing there with a large Doberman standing besides her. Roxanne kept the door almost shut. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Somebody you know." said the woman in an accent Roxanne couldn't confuse with anyone else.

She narrowed her eyes at Lady Doppler and pulled the door open so she could walk in. "Who's that?" Roxanne asked, looking at the dog whose blue eyes looked around the room. For a fleeting second she hoped it was Six, having escaped his captors and taken on a new disguise.

"A friend. You might know hem." Lady Doppler said as she turned the disguise off, seemingly unaware or uncaring if Wayne saw her or not. "Come along, Blue. Et ez all right. You remember Roxanne, non?" she asked.

"I do." the dog said before it lifted a paw and jabbed its other paw before it suddenly transformed into a suit. It was just how Minion's body had been, but this one wasn't a gorilla but a bear. Inside the dome where its head would be was a green colored fish, who spotted Wayne. Eyes widening he took a step back and lifted his massive hands, claws springing out in order to defend. "Who's that?"

"Uh. It's. It's M. When not in disguise." Roxanne said quickly, rushing to the man's side.

"M?" Blue asked, before he frowned. "You're the one who..." he trailed off and groaned, and looked at Lady Doppler. "Are you sure Mister told you that you should get in contact wtih her?"

"He did." Lady Doppler said.

"Mister?" Roxanne leaped at the word, "Six? He's alive?" she asked.

"I do not know." Lady Doppler replied coolly as she tugged a letter out of her pocket. "He... he left me zis note, zis morning." she slowly offered the letter and Roxanne snatched it up and she watched as the brunette read it.

"So that's why you weren't there with him." Wayne mumbled as he let Roxanne read the letter herself before she handed it to him. "He didn't want you there?"

"He made et so I slept through most of ze day. By ze time I awoke... et was already too late." she said quietly, holding her hands and looked down at them. "Monsieur Mind was gone."

"How about you?" Roxanne asked, turning to look at Blue with a somewhat accusing look even if she truly didn't mean it. Deep down, a part of her was looking for somebody to blame for this tragedy.

Blue looked insulted, and clenched his robotic hands as he frowned. "I was awake. So were the others, we all were."

"And you didn't stop him? Help him?" Roxanne demanded.

The fish took a step forward, eyes narrowed dangerously. "Mister gave specific instructions. We were made to obey him and even if his orders don't sit right with us, we have to obey them and obey him. He told us to stay behind, to watch Lady Doppler, and watch him walk away from us! You have no idea how hard it was watching him leave, knowing he may never come back to us! I can see you're trying to blame us, Miss. Ritchi, and if Mister could see you now he'd be shattered to think you'd do that! He thinks the world of you, don't insult his memory by casting doubts on us."

Roxanne stared at the fish before she seemed to almost deflate, and step back and sat on her coffee table before putting her head in her hands. "You're right, I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." apologizing to a fish, that was something she never thought she'd do.

"Insult his memory. So he... _is_ dead?" Wayne asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Blue replied. "I'm just a fish; I don't have any... hyper-sensitive connection to him... I wish I did but I'm guessing only father had that connection."

"Father?" Wayne asked.

"He means Minion." Roxanne said hoarsely. "You were made from Minion's DNA, weren't you?" she asked, lifting her head to look at the fish. "And those... other fish Megamind stole."

"Mmhmm." Blue nodded, "I remember you catching me when Mister found us in the sea. He did create us from father's genetics, he had no other choice unless he wanted stupid earth fish."

Wayne was re-reading the note again, trying desperately to see if there was a hidden code amongst the words. Six was a genius, he wouldn't be surprised if every other letter used would decode into an elaborate order for his fish to follow... but no. It really did just seem like a farewell letter. "Wait a minute. He took your powers away?" Wayne asked, looking at Lady Doppler who was standing by the balcony, looking out over the city.

"Oui." she looked at the man's reflection in the glass. "I can not 'over anymore, and I can not even summon ze wind or clouds."

"Why would he do that?" Roxanne asked.

"To make sure she wouldn't go flying in after him." Blue explained. "Mister's greatest fear was Lady Doppler being captured again so to ensure she would not he gave her something that blocks the flow of abilities in her mind. They're still there, just locked behind a powerful seal."

"And one of you fish know the antidote?" Wayne asked.

"Pretty much." shrugged the fish.

"Which one?" asked Roxanne.

Blue wagged a finger at them both. "Ah ah ah, Mister told us never to reveal which one of us has the antidote. Only when the time is right will we issue it, and Lady Doppler can be returned to normal. It's for her own protection against the world, and those who are after her."

"But that disadvantages her, what is she supposed to do now?" Wayne asked.

"Live." Blue said bluntly.

Lady Doppler sighed as she ran a hand through her hair before placing the same hand over her eyes. "I know 'e did et because he wants me safe... but et was wrong of him to do et without letting me know. I feel so... so... _human_now. And I am not." she turned to look at Roxanne and M, before looking to Blue. "Am I supposed to stay in ze cinema? Elsewhere? I do not know."

"Cinema?" Roxanne asked quietly.

"Oui. An old abandoned cinema 'as been where he and I 'ave called 'ome for a while now. Et ez out of ze way, secure enough for our tastes." Lady Doppler explained. "Et... et was beginning to feel like home." she rubbed her eyes again and her shoulders shook slightly as a sob escaped her. "Et es so silly of me, r-relying on him like I did..."

"No, no it isn't." Wayne moved across the room and reached out, placing his hand on her shoulder to help ease the shaking. "You were both what the other needed. Right?"

"But look at what 'as 'appened!" she pulled away from him, white eyes full of tears as they ran down her cheeks. "He is gone! He could be dead or worse captured and taken back to a Hell he wanted to stay away from, for me! Why would he do zat? Why would he ever risk all of zat?"

"Because you mattered to him." Roxanne said, rubbing at her own nose as she sniffed. "You mattered to him more than anything else. If he were anyone else, judging by how I've seen him act towards and around you, I would almost dare to say he loved you."

Lady Doppler laughed weakly, before taking the letter back from Wayne and gazed down at the writing. "Neither of us are even sure ef such a thing is possible for us... but ef et ez ze reason why 'e did this... if he's alive I will slap him next time I see him!"

Blue's arms were folded as he stared at a painting on Roxanne's wall, trying to not get too involved in the topic of love and his master. Love, to him, was something he knew nothing about nor would he try to work it out either. "If only..." he said, turning in his tank to look at the three other people, "...if only we had a way of knowing if he's alive, or even captured. If he is alive, and he is back with those people, we could break him out."

"Break him out?" Roxanne asked, eyes wide.

"There's an echo in here." Blue smiled faintly before he walked to the three. "Mister doesn't belong in those people's hands. And if he is dead, his remains don't deserve to be defiled for science research."

"Mmmhm." Roxanne nodded numbly.

"But we don't know where zey are." Lady Doppler said.

"Yes we do." Wayne said.

"What?" white eyes widened, doubling in size. "You know where zey are?"

"Wayne!" Roxanne gasped. "I told you that in private!"

"They have a right to know, Roxanne." Wayne said gravely. "And I have a right to tell them because it was my father who funded the whole terrible place." he turned to look at Roxanne, his face heavy with regret and sorrow. "It's out near the docks, it used to be a scrap yard but it was disguised that way. There was an entrance, hidden from sight, and that's where they are. If Six _is_ alive... or dead... chances are that's where his remains would be."

Lady Doppler stared at the man, eyes wide. "You... your... father..." she stammered before screaming and lashed out, striking her fists against his chest. She knew she shouldn't have done this, since it wasn't his fault that such a place existed. It was his father who had built up the place that she had read about in all those reports Six had kept in the cinema. All those horrible tests were approved by this man's father, so there must be some blame to be placed somewhere. As soon as her fists connected with his chest she pulled back, crying out in alarm since it had felt like she had punched a brick wall.

Blue was between the two seemingly instantaneously, facing Wayne, his ice blue eyes narrowed.

Wayne took a good few steps back, holding his hands up. "Sorry; I'm sorry."

"Why... what ez..." Lady Doppler nursed her injured hands while Blue turned to check on her. "You are so strong..."

"I'm M, remember?" Wayne asked weakly. "I'm kind of indestructible. But I _am_ sorry that my father played a hand in all of this."

"But... but ef you are an alien why... why weren't you...?" Lady Doppler asked, looking at him.

"I don't know." he answered, shrugging. "Maybe he didn't know. Maybe he did, but didn't want his own son going through testing. Perhaps he knew I couldn't be hurt so tests would be pointless? There's too many questions, and I don't know any answers. Only that... I seemed to have gotten the 'better end' of the stick it seems."

"I don't know what that means, but it sounds painful." Blue said.

Lady Doppler shook her hands and frowned at the bruising she had, but knew there was little to nothing to be done over it. She sighed and shut her eyes before opening them to look up at Wayne, eyes tired. "I am sorry."

"You don't have to apologize to me." Wayne replied gently as he desperately wanted to reach out and touch her to help bring some semblance of calm but the way the fish in the bear suit was looking at him he thought better of it. Six had instructed them to protect her, and that would probably include protecting her from him getting too close. "Really, you don't."

"So... so you know where ze base ez... does, does zat mean you could go zere, to see? To see ef he ez alive...?" Lady Doppler asked shakily, lifting her gaze to Wayne.

He thought for a moment.

"That's a good question." Roxanne pointed out as she walked closer to the man. "Your father owned the land, and the facility, he even paid all who worked there. Doesn't that make anything that happens in there your responsibility? As the man in charge of Scott Industries I think you have a loud voice in what's going on there."

"They have protection from the Vice President." Wayne pointed out.

"That still wouldn't cover that they're in your property. It's yours, your families, and has been for who knows how long." frowned Roxanne.

"So what, I just walk right up to them and ask to be let in?" Wayne asked. "I'm not even supposed to know where it is."

"Say you found out from old archive files or something. Lie!" Roxanne said desperately.

"And zat you want to inspect your property." Lady Doppler said, "Ask zem about Monsieur Mind, ef zey 'ave him or not! And, and use your powers to see if you can see him!"

"I'm not that great with my powers, I only started using them a year ago." Wayne admitted weakly.

"Zen et ez time for you to practice more!" Lady Doppler frowned, and set her bruised hands to her hips. "You need to see what you are capable of and what you can not do! Monsieur Six told me et ez always important to see what you can do, but even more important to know what you can not. You, Monsieur Scott, need to practice."

~*~

"All right..." the man in a white lab coat read over a clipboard, before looking up at the skinny brown haired man standing across from him. "Your name, from now on whenever you're in this facility, is Specs. You have that?"

The man raised an eyebrow slowly, but gave a slow nod. "Got it." he said flatly.

"You aren't to ask anyone what their name is, where they used to work, about their family, nothing." insisted the man.

"My ideal work place. No stupid questions." sighed the man, almost in a pleased way but it was hard to tell if he was being honest, or sarcastic.

"Now given your credentials you're going to work in sector A-1. You know what assignment that is?" he asked.

"Yes. So what do I call you?" 'Specs' asked.

"They named me Mercury." replied Mercury.

"Like leads then?" Specs asked.

"No. Freddie."

After that strange conversation, Specs made his way through to the holding floor. He saw a group of men in black suits talking amongst themselves, standing near a darkened window. It didn't take a genius to figure that on the other side of the glass was a holding cell, where something important was being kept.

Pulling out a clipboard, Specs checked the information printed on the paper before making his way over to the men. They were speaking in rapid French but stopped when he approached; what, did they think he knew French?

"Sorry gentlemen," he said flatly, "it's moving day. He-I mean, It," another stupid rule, never refer to the creature as he/him, always as it. "Needs to be moved to the lower levels. Since it's already healed from its earlier incident we can finally move it."

Just how the man had survived the physically traumatic experience it went through, Specs would never know. It was a testament to just how strong it was.

"Yes. Of course." said one of the French men as another group of men, these ones wearing white, approached.

"All right," it was Mercury again but this time he was surrounded by other men in white. "We've got our security here. Are you ready, Mr. Buratto?" he asked.

"Ready." replied Mr. Buratto.

A sudden crashing noise made the glass rattle and the wall to shake. All the men, minus Mr. Buratto, leapt back.

"What the Hell-" Mercury started.

"Ah, it's awake." Mr. Buratto said pleasantly as another crash rocked the glass.

Mercury rushed over and flipped a switch on the wall and the blackened glass became suddenly see through and Specs saw what turned his blood cold.

Inside a skinny blue skinned man was wearing an off white straight jacket. It kept his hands wrapped around his slim frame, incapable of hurting himself but judging from the looks of things he had already been hurt enough. There was a thick gauze covering his right eye, and his right ear had been partially blasted away by something, leaving shredded remains of his ear. There were, what appeared to be, burn marks to some spots on his head. Some of his eyebrows were even missing. The back of his head was a grotesque mess, old scars seeping yellow and white puss that looked like it hurt. Yet strapped around the crown of his massive head was a head piece that appeared to be causing discomfort.

"What is that on his-its head?" Specs asked.

"Neurological inhibitor." Mr. Buratto explained. "While it dumbs down a lot of its power, it doesn't totally render it helpless. Too strong and it might wipe his mind entirely, and we do NOT want that. So get too close and it might erase your mind entirely if it doesn't rip you to shreds with its mind alone. So keep your distance. The security men know how close they can get when the subject is awake."

Six was screaming loudly, but the room appeared to be sound proof. His mouth was open in a twisted gape, teeth stained with the blood of dead men as well as his own. His one good eye was wide with horror at the realization he knew where he was. He screamed again as he ran across the room, his metal legs replaced with safe plastic ones that weren't built to match his body at all, they were human in appearance. It made it difficult to walk but he refused to stay in one place. Instead he threw himself against another white wall, striking his head as he did.

"He's going to crack his head open…" Specs watched as Six ran head long into another wall, streaking it with grime and blood. The paint began to bubble in reaction to the blood, and one piece of paint burst and peeled backwards a few centimeters to reveal the wall beneath.

"Best calm him down then." Mr. Buratto said as he pressed a button and a visible gas began to leak into the room from vents. They watched as Six spun around, looking lost, scared, and confused. His look was soon replaced with one of exhaustion, and he fell to his knees and bent forward, face almost touching the floor but not. "All right. Go in and take him." the large man gestured to three men who were dressed in black and holding long silver poles.

They looked a little nervous, but one glare from Mr. Buratto sent them hurrying into the room.

"What are they...?" Specs started.

"It is like controlling a mad animal. The poles are connected to a control collar we have around its neck, see? It keeps them at a safe distance so their minds, and bodies, are not as risk of injury." Mr. Buratto explained simply.

"Oh."

Six was hauled to his feet once the metal sticks were attached to a collar that, if he could see it, would remind him of the one he had removed from Lady Doppler. Using the sticks they guided him from the room, out into the hallway. Many of the doctors in white took a good few steps back, but Specs didn't.

"What happened to his... sorry, its face?" he asked.

"He tried to commit suicide. Unfortunately he withstood some... injuries." Mr. Buratto said, still feeling agitated that the De-Gun, once grasped at by himself, had erupted into flames. Seemed Six was smart enough to design it to only recognize his own genetic make up and if anyone else dare even touch it, it would self destruct. The eruption had burned clothing, and done the damage to Six's eyebrows and skin, while the initial blast had almost ripped his ear off of his head entirely and left some nasty scars leading up along the right side of his face too.

The three security men began to push and guide the drugged alien down the hallway. Mr. Buratto and the other doctors hung back, talking, while Specs watched from the crowd of them. Six staggered here and there but was soon pulled to his feet again.

They approached the elevator, and with a swipe of a card and a press of a button they waited. Six was twitching; was he already waking up from the toxin in the air? He attempted to pull away from the men but they were stronger than him, physically, and kept him still. The doors on the elevator beeped as they opened like a hungry mouth.

"_NO!_" Six suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs and once more tried to pull away. The sudden sign of strength from the skinny, drugged alien surprised the security guards. One let go entirely of his pole while the other two held their ground, gripping the poles tightly. The taller of them used his pole to suddenly slam Six into a wall where the alien groaned and slumped to the floor, eyes shutting. He was dragged into the elevator, and the door shut on them.

Specs watched the spot blankly, before glancing at the other men near by. They continued to talk as if nothing happened.

"Well crap." Specs muttered and wondered just what kind of job he had gotten himself into before wondering if his paycheck would be made out to 'Specs' or 'Bernard Dunning'.

_To be continued_


	15. Chapter 15

"You must look at things from our perspective, Six." Mr. Buratto said as he stood inside a white room, staring at the blue skinned alien who hung suspended from the ceiling by metal restraints. Upon his head, as always, was the metal banding that gave off a faint blue color. "You've shown yourself to be quite the opponent, a terrifying foe to anyone who isn't me. Let's look at your history shall we?" he put his hands behind his back as he began to pace slowly back and forth, eyes on the alien who continued to watch him like a caged animal.

"Age six you bit one of your carers. You began to lash out at those around you at any chance you could. Then you committed your first act of double homicide at only thirteen years old! Then again, double homicide, not to mention the security guards you crushed with elevator doors. Fast forward several years and you escape a second time, successfully. You kill everyone within the facility and anybody outside of it, hunting them down like a man deranged. But they're all gone now." the French man turned to look at the alien, and stared down into the lone acidic, angry green eye that glared at him.

"Ah, but you see us as the next stage don't you?" he asked, "That's why you lashed out the way you did. Ten of my men, Six. You killed ten of them like carpenter ants under somebody's boot. We had no weapons, we had no way of injuring you yet you made it your goal to put us out of our misery and stain your hands, and your teeth, with our blood."

Six continued to say nothing. He hadn't spoken a word to anyone since he had awoken once more in this Hell he swore he would never visit again.

"So quiet. I was hoping we could be civil to one another, but after you killed another three of my men this morning it's obvious you're not keen on being civil at all which was a shame. As I'm sure you're aware, Lady Doppler as she's now calling herself, could fly where she wanted as long as it was within our boundaries. She wasn't contained to one room. She could do as she wanted while not on duty. We are offering you the same kind of freedom. We just need from you some things that I'm sure you'll be happy with. A laboratory, a place to work to your hearts content, no more picking pieces of metal out of scrap yards like a beggar looking for scraps in a bin. Chemicals to test all sorts of things, isn't that what you're after?"

The alien's fists clenched in his restraints, and his one good eye shut and he let out an angry sound from the back of his throat. Once more he struggled against the metal, feeling it flex beneath his touch but never enough to pry it apart and fall free of the metallic grasp.

"No. I guess what you want is total freedom. But would this world welcome you, ever?" Mr. Buratto asked, clasping his hands together in front of him. "You've attacked the city twice now. You made quite a name for yourself when you were in charge of the Doom Syndicate who, now, see you as their enemy and I know they would do anything to get back at you. You are an outcast, the last of your species and an angry one at that. You will never find a true place, or peace, without our help."

The man stood there, and waited. It had been this way for a week now, Six taking up residence in a room very similar to the one he had grown up in. They had given him too much freedom at first, by removing the restraining clothing and freeing his hands Six had killed the man who had been in the room with him, and had then torn the room apart. As such he was forced to sleep in the mess he created, and whenever somebody was to enter the room to bring him food they would have to literally gas the room to put Six into a controlled slumber. The scientists worried what this would do to his brain, but Mr. Buratto assured them some knock out gas wouldn't harm him at all.

Mr. Buratto knew what Six was capable of and if it weren't the inhibitor strapped constantly to his head they would all be dead. This alien, man, monster, had been made by human hands. Things could have been so different if they had offered him kindness, compassion and understanding. Only now, when offered with it, did he spit at it as if it were poisonous.

"Your cells hold the key to many diseases on Earth, Six. You must know that by now. If we could study them properly, we could determine a cure for all kinds of diseases that take human lives on a daily basis. But... I guess you don't want to bring help to people, do you? You want to see them burn for what's happened to you."

Six's green eye opened and he looked at him, breathing hard now. It was such a shame that, the other day, when they had finally removed the bandaging over his right eye it was discovered he had lost the full use of it. Now it was nothing but an ugly white, blind orb that saw nothing. Combine that with the horrible scarring arching from his right eye to his partly destroyed ear, Six was now befitting the image of 'evil villain' that people had when they thought of one.

"Why with your expertise you might even be able to make yourself a working eye, just like you did with your legs. Isn't that worth cooperating, if just a little?" Mr. Buratto asked. "You'll be able to see clearly, walk, why we might even give you plastic surgery for that ripped thing you call an ear now. Don't you want to be whole, again?"

Six hadn't been whole for a long, long time. If he thought on it hard enough, the ache of being alone had started when he had been so young, so innocent to the ways of the world and his captors. Minion was not with him, he had forgotten his only friend and that gaping hole of lonlines had begun to eat away at him from the inside like a cancerous tumor in living, healthy tissue. Had the hole been there from the very beginning, upon seeing his parents vanishing into a cloud of smoke and rubble as his pod escaped the gravity pull of the planet?

The parts of him missing now, his legs, his eye, his ear, were little to nothing compared to the gaping hole that still consumed him. It gave Megamind strength, power and fed the anger that had begun to slowly fill in the hole. Six feared what would happen to him, to his mind, if it would fill completely. Would he be lost in the shadows forever, and Megamind be the permanent mind in control? There were so many fears in his mind, so many, even with Megamind currently being the one in charge now he still felt the fear and lonliness. It all seemed too much.

Despite the fear and the planning he had ended up back here, in the hands of an alien who had once been on a neighboring planet. Just... how does that happen? Is that truly why the Government never sought Wayne Scott out, because they already knew all there was to know about him? Was it his families affluence? History? Too many questions. Not enough answers. That has to stop.

"How did you come to be on this planet?" Megamind asked, his voice quiet and strained from not being used for nothing but screaming for the past week.

"This isn't about me." Mr. Buratto replied calmly.

"It is." growled Megamind. "Your planet... and mine... destroyed by a black hole. Where were you, there? Here? If you know of my species don't you already know enough?"

"I was already established here." said Mr. Buratto as he moved slightly, "I was sent as a scout to see how life on another planet was managed. To see-"

"If you could overthrow them like you did my people." Megamind said quickly.

"...how are you aware of our planets history, you were merely an infant when they both ended." Mr. Buratto said, amazed that the alien would know this.

"Your kind was all about power and control. Strength in numbers. The more planets under your belt the better. You wanted our planet so you took it. My species my... my kind, their minds were of use. We built you weapons. We designed so much and you robbed us of our freedom. Your thousand years of slavery came to a bloody end but we were finally free; free... licking your wounds you still wanted more. Find a race not like ours, not intelligent but stupid. That's why you came to Earth, and then you realized your home was destroyed and you may be the last left. How does that make you feel?"

Mr. Buratto stood there, staring at the alien before him. He had spoken of the truth, shockingly enough. The blue skinned species had been enslaved for years by his own, it could almost be compared to the Spartans and the peaceful philosophers who were their neighbors. Only far more advanced. "How do you know this?"

"You're within my range of mind reading." Megamind replied casually, with a shrug. "But only by an inch."

The French man stepped backwards, out of his range. "What else did you see?" he asked.

"Your discovery of 'Seven'. The 'freedom' you gave her and how you treated her. I know you were bluffing, too. She isn't yours. She never was. She longed for freedom just as I did. Hmmm. Next time, try not to remember how close you have to be all right? Next time I'll shut your windpipe and watch you die." Megamind hissed dangerously.

"So we can't be civil, can we?" Mr. Buratto asked.

"No." Megamind replied calmly. "We can't."

"So much anger, so much hate." sighed Mr. Buratto.

"It's what I've lived off of all my life." Megamind whispered. "And if you think spewing Dr. Phil feel-good talk to me is going to get me to stupidly dance for you people, you've got another thing coming."

"Then I guess there's nothing for it." Mr. Buratto said before turning to look at a mirror in the room and gave a nod.

Megamind turned his head as best he could before the jolts of electricity suddenly spiked through his restraints and into his body. The pain was horrible, unimaginable and he could only compare it to having his legs amputated as a teenager. His hands clenched so tight blood began to trickle down his palms and wrists, and both of his eyes bugged out with his screams. The pain arched his back, and it lasted for twenty seconds before the pain was gone, and Megamind was so sure that burning smell he smelt was his goatee. Panting, he hung his head forward, shutting his eyes as he felt the burning of his throat still stinging from the screams. His whole body shook in the aftermath, and he could still feel his blood running down his arms.

"If you want to act like an animal, you will be treated like one. Disobedience will be answered with punishment. It's as simple as that." Mr. Buratto said as he stepped back and opened the door that led out into the hallway. "Believe me, Six, if you continue to not do what we ask you'll wish you had died with the rest of your pathetic, weakling of a race."

"I already do." Megamind said quietly before the door shut, and the room was plunged into darkness.

The darkness felt as though it could go on forever in every which way, not unlike that of the universe but at least the universe had stars, moons, and planets to fill the void so it wasn't completely black, like this. This darkness was like something out of horror stories people read to give themselves a fright. It was darkness Six wished he never knew.

A glitter of light suddenly pierced in the darkness, and the black void shivered in fear and began to retreat from the light.

Six sat there, in the light, grasping his ankles in his hands. They were blue, flesh, muscle, and bone. His own legs. Funny that, despite knowing they had been removed from his body years, and years ago they still remained when he was sitting amongst the darkness like this. He ran his thumb over his ankle, feeling the knobby bone beneath the skin, before glancing down at himself. While he didn't feel naked, he still couldn't feel the sensation of fabric against his skin and yet he could see no bare blue skin save for his arms and legs. It looked as though he was cloaked in the light, hiding the rest of his form from sight. Just as he was reaching to touch where his chest would be when he heard a faint stirring in the distance. Lifting his gaze, with both of his eyes, he stared out at it.

It was a shape slowly moving towards him from the shadows. He should feel afraid, Six should get to his feet and retreat further into the light to escape it but... the shape felt familiar.

"Well, well." said his voice from the darkness, "This is new. I've never been able to get this close to you before."

"Who are you?" Six asked the darkness as the shape was growing closer with every passing step.

"I'm you." answered the other as he finally became clearer in the light, though still remained standing in the shadows.

What Six saw horrified him. It really was himself, but there were vast differences in his appearance. His legs, from the knee down, were metallic and made him think of dinosaurs from long ago with sharp talons in which to rip creatures apart. Red blood appeared to be dripping from both of the monstrous feet, along with the blue hands that hung at his sides. His face was his own, but not. The right eye was pure white, blind, and the other was filled to the brim with an angry, deadly look. Growing away from the blind right eye was scarring, horrible to look upon but not as bad as the ear that had been almost been completely blasted off. Hanging from the back of his huge head was one last thing... metal tubing. It trailed on the ground behind him, leaking white blood slowly like a tap that hadn't been shut off entirely. And, like Six, he too was shrouded in material that appeared non existent, as if the darkness itself was his clothing.

"You... you..." Six stammered, eyes wide in horror.

"You, you." Megamind answered, holding his bloody hands out to Six as if wanting to embrace him. "Quite a sight, aren't I?"

"You're not me." Six blurted.

"Oh but I am." Megamind took another step forward, his metallic feet clicking on the floor. "We're not looking so good, are we?" he asked with a toothy grin and Six shuddered at the realization there was red blood staining Megamind's teeth. "But, this is what they've done. A lovely lot, aren't they?"

"They're not all bad." Six said back quietly as he watched Megamind slowly sit on the ground before him. "Roxanne isn't bad."

"Hah!" Megamind snorted in amusement. "She is just like the rest. Feeding her own selfish desires, that's what she's doing. Hiding Minion from us, hiding M from us and the fact they've been sleeping together for months...!"

"No, she... really?" Six asked quietly, eyes wide.

"You never knew that? Oh come on now!" Megamind laughed, clapping his bloody hands together in amusement. "It was painfully obvious. Plus I might have read into their minds once or twice."

"That's horrible!" Six gasped, putting his hands over his mouth. "That's... that's her privacy! That was terrible of you!"

"In case you forget, I'm a terrible person." Megamind replied sarcastically before cautiously reaching out and made to push his hand into the light. As soon as his finger came in contact with the brightness though, he yelped and jerked away, the bleeding hand hissing slightly. Six jumped and yelped too, before looking down at his left hand to see a similar burn mark to his finger. "Now that's interesting." commented Megamind.

"We... we're connected, aren't we?" Six asked quietly. "We're... we're almost fighting for who gets control of this realm this... mind. That's what's happening, isn't it?"

Megamind chuckled. "You're quick on the uptake when you want to be, Six. I'll give you that much." he smiled toothily again as a dribble of spit and blood dribbled down his chin into his beard. "Yes. This is the future Minion warned. It's not going to be easy, simple, or pleasant. This time we're not fighting for our escape, but our shared mind. Whoever emerges victorious shall remain in control permanently and the other... will die."

"Die?" Six asked, scooting away from Megamind quickly.

"Relax. I can't kill you. I can't go in the light; you can't come in the dark. This battle is going to be won by choices, and choices alone."

Six and Megamind looked at one another, before Six slowly leaned to the side to see the tubing coming out from Megamind's head. Turning his head slightly, Megamind too looked at them. "Oh yeah, those. They're going to be happening soon. Remember how they used to extract liquid from our head when we were little? This is the step up from that."

Six had to fight the urge to throw up, instead he clenched his fists against his sides. "Humans aren't nearly as terrible as you make them out to be. They're capable of so much, and they have so much left to learn. Compare... compared to our species, they're only babies."

"Babies need to learn the harsh cold facts of reality soon enough." Megamind snapped back angrily. "They see something dangerous, something worthy of respect and worship and what do they do? Spit on it! Stab at it with forks, knives, trying to gain its power for themselves."

The white light suddenly brightened, causing the shadow to slink away, and Megamind took a step back. His metallic feet were silent against the non-existent floor but Six could all but imagine the souless noise they must make. "I'm going to show you. Not everyone is out to get us."

"I highly doubt that's possible." snorted Megamind.

"You'll see." Six shot back this time.

"They want me to what?" Specs asked as he stood outside the doorway that led into the room where the alien subject known as Six was residing.

"The higher ups want you to go in there and loosen the straps on his wrists. Mr. Buratto figures if we ease him into the ideal that we trust him, we won't need to electroshock or gas him anymore. Over enough time, those elements might prove harmful for his brain and those brass want his brain intact." explained one of his co-workers who was only known by the nickname Flask.

Bernard, Specs, knew this new job would be Hell but he didn't think they'd be shoving him in there with the Devil himself in his first week. They really, really must not like him to ask this of him. Sighing in a defeated way, he reached for the keys needed to unlock the door, and then to loosen the restraints. Pushing the door open he stood a moment and looked at the sleeping figure before him, hanging suspended from the ceiling and looking like a bizare take on Da Vinici's Vitruvian Man, or even Christ himself. That is, neither that man nor Christ was blue, with a giant head, and a half scarred face whose legs below the knees were missing.

He told himself the alien was asleep, knocked out, so there was no threat. Surely they wouldn't send him in here with such a looming, possible threat, could they?

"Of course they could." Bernard thought to himself as he approached the alien. Quickly he reached out and began adjusting the tightness of the restraints hoping to work as fast as he could but also remain efficient. If he loosened it too much, Six could pull an arm free at an opportune moment. Then he'd be in all types of trouble. He moved to the right wrist after the left and did his best to work quickly.

Then the aliens eyes shot open.

Bernard felt a scream rising in his chest and his mouth opened but found his voice suddenly all but removed like a piece of hardware. That lone green and beautifully haunted eye stared at him while its white counterpart didn't seem to want to stare at anything. The alien was holding him here; why wasn't anyone rushing in to help him? He was suddenly hauled closer to the blue extra terrestrial, who too suddenly slammed forward.

Their foreheads connected in a powerful headbutt yet Bernard felt nothing.

Instead, images flashed through his brain and memory, images that he wasn't familiar with and yet he felt as if he knew them all. He saw the white rooms, the doctors and their needles, the small dead fish in a ball and a straw that broke a camels back. Bernard saw the guards fall like dominoes and suddenly a long drop followed by incredible pain and a leg held in front of him and one doctor instructing him 'this is what happens when you disobey us'. The medical procedures were the worst, he was drowning, burning, prodded with needles and tubes. Finally the escape happened before his eyes, as if he was walking in the steps of the tortured alien who finally made a break for it.

All of what he had heard about Six, Megamind, mostly turned out to be fabricated or guessed. What really happened to him was far beyond what Bernard would have anticipated or dare thought. He witnessed his raise in power and notoriety, the Doom Syndicate bowing to him and offering their alegiance and man power to his cause. What was his cause? Destruction. Megamind, the side of him born of hatred and nothing but wanted to see the City, the world, burn. But a woman got through to him. With a simple act of kindness his world was shattered, and he had fled into hiding.

Then there was another woman, the one he had heard whispers of. A white haired woman who could control the weather at a whim. She found him, too, and brought such warmth. Such... love? Something close to it. Everything came to ahead and the second the blaster went off in his face Bernard finally found his voice and screamed before falling backwards onto the ground as Six's own screams filled the air too.

Seemed his co-workers finally realized that Bernard had been in trouble and had electrocuted the alien. Bernard sat up and stared, wide eyed, as the alien convulsed with the electric shock. His mouth contorted in a twisted scream as his eyes remained open and wide. Finally the shocks stopped and he sagged forward in his restraints, tears streaming down his face as he hung there.

Bernard barely felt his co-workers drag him to his feet, or ask him questions as to whether or not he was okay.

He was _more _than okay.

He knew _everything_.


	16. Chapter 16

"So did you catch the game last night?"

"No, 'fraid I didn't. Had to stay around here, didn't I?"

"Oh jeeze. Sorry to hear about that."

"No problems. Ugh. Is this infected? It looks infected to me."

Six lay there, eyes staring vacantly ahead, as the doctors stood around him. He was facing downwards but they had been proper enough to set him up on a bed that had a hole so his face could stick through, and he stared blankly at the floor. The band around his head was firmly in place, nullifying him, sedating him, while the men did whatever it was they were doing back there to his head. He suspected they were slicing out bits of his brain, or taking more tissue samples. Why did they need so many tissue samples? Hadn't they got enough out of him so far?

"God damn it. He's gotten infected. Infection!" called one of the men, obviously signaling somebody not in the room.

"I'm not infected." Six said quietly, and tried to move his arms but they were strapped down by his sides thanks to the restraints keeping him firmly in place.

"Look at this, look at it. Is, is that a tumor? God no, don't be that... wait, wait. No. No. Simple infection. God damn it."

Another person entered the room, and Six heard their hurried footsteps come to a stop by his head. He stared down at black shiny shoes and saw his reflection staring back at them. His sight had been mangled so badly, he could only see out of one eye so his depth perception was most certainly off and would remain as such. He had out right refused Buratto's offer to make himself a fake eye; anything he'd make inside these labs would be tainted by evil and hatred, how could he make anything?

"He's going to need antibiotics." said a female voice.

"Antibiotics? Well damn, which ones aren't going to kill him?"

"If only he'd left _some_ of his records in tact we could know that. But no, we don't, so we're going to have to shoot for the best unless Mr. Six wants to tell us which antibiotics won't eat his skin?"

The voice was sarcastic, but six ignored him. Death would be a welcomed relief from this Hell he had been living through for the past week. Every day there were tests, pushing him both mentally and physically, it was like he'd never left. On top of that there was Megamind, still there sitting in the distance of his mind growing steadily closer with every passing day. How was it that his own face terrified him so much that he was terrified of falling asleep? What if, while he was asleep, Megamind took over and killed him, smother him like a mother does to an unwanted child with a pillow?

The idea ignited a sudden motion of his body; Six began to fight, flailing as best he could against his restraints as his captors as they tried to push him back down flat onto the operating bed. "NO! NOOAAUUGHH! _NAAHHHOO!_" Six screamed desperately, gnashing his teeth and foaming at the mouth, finding the bed and bit at it before he was violently pulled away (before he could chip his teeth on the material thankfully) from the bed and knocked his head on something that had been hanging low over the table, probably a light. That sent a stab or pain through his very being and he sobbed, shutting his eyes tightly as he was gripped roughly through the hospital gown he wore.

"Sedatives, we need more sedatives! Jesus, he's getting worse every day what does Buratto need with him?"

"Only the top brass know that." said one of the doctors as a needle was brought in and it was jabbed into the thin aliens arm. "There are a lot of theories, but I don't think any of them are right."

"What theories?" asked a young man.

"Well for one..."

Six never heard the rest of the conversation. His one good eye rolled up into his head and he began to drool heavily like a special needs person. The open surgery on the back of his head was sealed up, antibiotics were applied (carefully) and he was set on a stroller to be moved back to his room.

Spectacles was on duty, and that meant he had a job to do. He came around the corner in 'scrubs' and wished it wasn't his day to be here but then he saw the alien and he realized it was probably best that he was. He took hold of the gurney and began to push him, looking down at the blue skinned alien with a look of both reverence but also contempt. Over the past week, he had been having dreams. Dreams of horrible mangled images, memories that were not his, faces he felt like he should know but didn't. He saw a dead fish, always floating, always glowing like something out of Hell itself with its eyes white and blind and yet it was _always_ looking at him.

The murders were the worst to sleep through. The black gloved hands were his own, snuffing out lives as if they were candles left near an open window. He heard pleads, begs for mercy, and promises of wealth, land, anything as long as they could live but the answer was never what they wanted. He had seen death so often in his sleep he was quickly becoming an insomniac, too terrified to sleep in case he saw those horrible, disgusting things all over again. It was like an infection, a disease that couldn't be fixed no matter what he tried. He had attempted to ignore them, at first, pretend they didn't exist. That, seemingly, enraged the cloudy part of his mind which in itself was horrifying. How could it feel anger? Yet it felt as though it did, since the dreams got more intense, every single night.

"What did you do to me?" he asked the alien as he pushed him through to his bed, and began to ease him onto the white mattress on his side, so he wouldn't apply pressure to the fresh bandages on his head.

_"Everything."_ a voice in his head answered, causing the man to step back suddenly in shock. Six, in return, began to roll onto his back. "_Can't you help me nobody will help me why won't they help me?_" the little voice asked as Spectacles tried to position him on the bed again.

"Now I'm hearing voices. That's just great." he thought to himself.

_"You're only hearing mine... you're this close, you can hear me because I let you in."_

"Get out of my head. Now." he threatened with his mind.

_"Can't you help me?"_ the voice sounded so small, so scared, like a child.

"I. I don't know how." answered the human as he positioned the aliens fake legs on the bed so he would be comfortable, not something all other new men liked to do with the blue man. Normally they would just throw him onto the bed and leave him as he landed, which was mostly always in painful looking positions.

_"Find them... just find them... please..."_ the voice begged, growing quieter now, as if it was walking away from him.

"I'll be drawn and quartered if I'm found talking to, to M! And if I find Lady Doppler and not reporter? I'm as good as dead!" Spectacles shot back in his mind.

_"Your life must be so hard..."_

And with that, the voice was gone. Spectacles stood there staring at the blue alien wanting to both hit him, as well as console him. He saw what they did to him, the tests where they dumped him in water far deeper than he was tall, to see how far he could stay afloat in rough water before he would begin to tire. All of it without his powers. He saw the needles they stuck him with, the blood they took in canisters with proper lining so they wouldn't burst open and bleed his deadly blood all over the place.

He knew he was being watched so he knew better than to stand and stare at him. Instead he pulled the blanket up to the alien's chin, resisted the urge to touch his face, and walked from the room quickly and shut the door behind him.

_Find them?_

He would be killed for going against his better judgment, for not reporting what happened to him to his superiors, and yet he was afraid if he did he would end up in the same situation as Six was. He would be restrained, drugged, hair shaved, and have bits of him be taken out piece by piece until no part of him remained. It was a horrifying mental picture but not as horrifying as his nightmares, like the one where he was being strapped to a table and a doctor coming at him with something that looked very much like a chainsaw built of Satan's plans and nobody else's.

"Right." he said quietly to himself as he stepped in the elevator, and pressed a button. He had made his decision, finally.

Back in the white, pristine bedroom, the sleeping alien slowly, and surely, smiled.

_To be continued_


End file.
